Adaptive application selection in cloud gaming

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for remotely provisioning immediately executable games with license control in secure environments. Immediately initially executable portions of games are pushed onto user desktops, and when games are selected for play, additional components of selected games are streamed to said desktops.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/458,437, filed Apr. 27, 2012, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application Nos. 61/480,333, filed Apr. 28, 2011,61/505,826, filed Jul. 8, 2011, 61/600,390, filed Feb. 17, 2012,61/602,069, filed Feb. 22, 2012 and 61/609,941, filed Mar. 13, 2012, allof which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The present application relates to methods and systems for remotelyprovisioning and managing immediately playable games with licensecontrol in secure environments.

Note that the points discussed below may reflect the hindsight gainedfrom the disclosed inventions, and are not necessarily admitted to beprior art.

Conventionally, software games and other applications can be provided,maintained and recovered for Small Office/Home Office (“SOHO”)environments, homes, Internet Cafes, educational establishments andother organizations in several ways, including by using physical media,download, “Disk Images”, the complete contents of a device's userenvironment, Virtual Desktop solutions, or “Pixel Streaming”, whereapplication rendering services are offloaded to an edge server locatedin the cloud.

For example, when a user wishes to play a game or use anotherapplication where rendering is performed in the cloud, he is connectedto an edge server, which allocates a virtual desktop for the user. Thecloud-rendered image is then compressed and routed to the gamingplatform or user desktop.

Currently there are a number of edge server based cloud gaming servicescompanies, including Onlive, Gaikai Inc and Otoy.

Software-based gaming is an enormous global market. This market isdriven heavily by instant gratification for the customers. The core setof players are predominantly (approximately) 12-35 year old males.Purchases are often impulsive. Flagship (“AAA”) game titles areadvertised months—or even years—in advance, at trade shows and in onlinetrade publications, to build up favorable advance notices. AAA titlerelease week sales numbers are closely watched precisely becauseelectronic gaming, regardless of platform, is so oriented towardsinstant gratification and the buildup towards a must-have purchase. Justas importantly for smaller-budget (often cheaper) titles, the ability toprovide gamers a true impulse purchase that can be immediately played iscritical to generating word-of-mouth leading to a wider audience. Gamersare, by the quickfire, rapid-reward nature of the pastime, an impatientgroup with a short attention span, and the faster that software can beloaded to a playable state on a gaming device, the more likely a gameris to still feel like playing when the game is ready. Gaming software,in this respect, is notably different from other software.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosed inventions will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, which show important sample embodiments and whichare incorporated in the specification hereof by reference, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an example of an ADN.

FIG. 2 shows an example of delivery of non-linear content.

FIG. 3 shows an example of delivery of non-linear content

FIG. 4A shows an example of an ADN.

FIG. 4B shows an example of an ADN.

FIG. 4C shows an example of an ADN.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an ADN cloud.

FIG. 6A shows an example of an ADN cloud.

FIG. 6B shows an example of a local box.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an ADN.

FIG. 8 shows an example of application launch.

FIG. 9 shows an example of application launch.

FIG. 10 shows an example of determining availability of license seats.

FIG. 11 shows an example of determining availability of local boxes.

FIG. 12 shows an example of choosing Partials to serve.

FIG. 13 shows an example of failover.

FIG. 14 shows an example of ADN usage information.

FIG. 15 shows an example of cloudpaging.

FIG. 16 shows an example of cloudpaging.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a cloudpaging.

FIG. 18 shows an example of cloudpaging.

FIG. 19 shows an example of cloudpaging.

FIG. 20 shows an example of a target proxy device.

FIG. 21 shows an example of serving applications using P2P.

FIG. 22 shows an example of serving applications using P2P.

FIG. 23 shows an example of serving applications using P2P.

FIG. 24 shows an example of automatic library maintenance.

FIG. 25 shows an example of automatic library maintenance.

FIG. 26 shows an example of cloudpaging.

FIG. 27 shows an example of a user's library.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will bedescribed with particular reference to presently preferred embodiments(by way of example, and not of limitation). The present applicationdescribes several inventions, and none of the statements below should betaken as limiting the claims generally.

Application Distribution Network

The present application discloses various inventions which, in variousways, allow one or more local boxes, under the supervision of a globalbox, to serve standardized virtualized applications with licenses (orwithout, for license-free software) to clients. There is also a robustfailover system that allows clients to change provisioning from a failedlocal box to another local box or, if necessary, to the globalcontroller, using license provision information synchronized betweenlocal boxes as needed to facilitate changeover. There are synergisticadvantages in combining these application distribution networkinventions with the innovative application-server architecture which isalso described herein, but it should be noted that either of the twogroups of inventions can be exploited separately to great advantage,independently of the ideas in the other group of inventions.

According to one particularly advantageous class of embodiments, anApplication Distribution Network (ADN) comprises a hierarchical networkwith a top-level constellation of hardware and/or software servingapplications and allocating licenses over a WAN to an intermediaryconstellation of hardware and/or software for redistribution over a LANto interactive stations used by end users. Applications are packaged,prior to being served, to contain all of the components necessary forexecution (e.g., executables, .dll's and registry keys) so that, once anapplication package is present on an interactive station, a “file systemhook” may be used to interdict and redirect operating system calls toisolate an executing application package from other interactive stationfunctions. Packaged applications do not require installation forexecution. Consequently, deployment of new packaged applications may beperformed remotely. Further, in some embodiments, digital rightsmanagement via license provisioning may be employed for intellectualproperty protection, and/or tamper-resistance may be facilitated byemploying secure encryption.

License provision from an intermediary constellation uses a sync agentthat communicates license provision status on license allocation. Whenhardware and/or software units allocating licenses from the intermediaryconstellation to interactive stations go offline, other licenseallocating units can continue allocating licenses because the sync agentmakes them aware of the number of remaining licenses, which can bedivided among the remaining online license allocating units. Applicationprovision and license allocation can also failover to the top-levelconstellation under some circumstances (e.g., if all applicationprovision and/or license allocation units in the intermediaryconstellation are offline).

In some embodiments, packaged applications are broken up into “pages”,application portions reflecting actual code or application data usedduring execution of corresponding application functions. Pages arestreamed to interactive stations during application provisioning.

The disclosed innovations, in various embodiments, provide one or moreof at least the following advantages. However, not all of theseadvantages result from every one of the innovations disclosed, and thislist of advantages does not limit the various claimed inventions.

-   -   enables provisioning applications on demand from a vastly        expanded library to a target device;    -   enables provisioning applications on demand with any combination        of plug-ins;    -   enables organizations to purchase, rent or subscribe to software        for its members, and to internally time share licenses;    -   inventive systems and methods can be fully implemented using        relatively limited infrastructure investment;    -   application availability does not rely on a user or an end-user        hardware manager (e.g., business organization) knowing ahead of        time what software will be desired or required on which target        device;    -   embodiments utilizing virtualization do not require        installation;    -   does not require physical acquisition of software media;    -   enables friction-free deployment, management and recovery of a        wide range of automatically updated applications with reduced IT        support overhead;    -   enables portable user environments that be loaded on any target        device that can access the cloud, and that can quickly reach an        executable state for a broad array of applications within a        portable user environment;    -   enables broad deployment of portable environments and/or        software suites within an organization;    -   robust failover ensures consistent and reliable application        source availability;    -   enables local access to on-demand cloud-delivered applications,        while allowing data to be stored locally or in the cloud;    -   embodiments with license control enable generalized distribution        of centrally packaged virtualized applications with targeted        licensing; and    -   provides a secure environment that is resistant against DRM        hacking.

The advent of cloud-based computing architectures has opened newpossibilities for the rapid and scalable distribution and deployment ofapplications on end user target devices. A target device may be, forexample, a PC, minicomputer, mainframe computer, console, set top box,smart TV, tablet, smart phone, smart vehicle environment (such as acar), programmable consumer electronics, distributed computingenvironment where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network.

Application Virtualization

Application virtualization improves portability, manageability, copyprotection and compatibility of applications by encapsulating them fromthe underlying operating system on which they are executed. It enablesapplications to be seamlessly and remotely deployed and maintained. Afully virtualized application does not need to be installed to beexecuted. The application is fooled at runtime into believing that it isdirectly interfacing with the original operating system and theresources managed by it, when in reality it may not be.

As described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,451,196, applications can be virtualizedby providing a file system overlay on a target device by configuring afile system hook operatively interposed between a file system managerand a file system driver of the target device. The file system hook isconfigured to detect a file system call corresponding to a targetapplication and invoking one or more procedures. An agent procedure alsoexecutes on the target device to configure the file system hook forexecuting the target application. The one or more invoked procedures mayinclude, for example, accessing data at a server terminal operativelycoupled to the target device via a data network (such as the Internet)or at a locally connected computer readable storage medium.

The file system hook interdicts file system calls (and may do soselectively), thus sandboxing virtualized applications. Virtualizedapplications run at near native speed within the sandbox.

Virtualization enables enforcement of secure digital rights management(“DRM”). Virtualized software can be stored in encrypted form, but(generally) is decrypted at runtime. By isolating executing virtualizedsoftware from the operating system, other programs—such as potentiallyconflicting programs, malicious programs (malware) or programs designedto capture decrypted, executing virtualized software—can be preventedfrom accessing executing virtualized content.

A security process executing on a target device can regulate access offile resources by the file system hook using a property unique to aparticular executing virtualized software. This is one way in which fileresources may be invisible to processes executing on the target deviceother than the file system hook and the executing virtualized software.

Application Streaming

Application streaming is a software distribution methodology designed toaccelerate software distribution by delivering only currently-requiredprogram data to a target device. Users can execute software on a targetdevice without a complete version of the software already present on thedevice. Effectively, executable portions of the application are buffered‘on demand’.

Paging

As described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,567, application streaming may beachieved using a system that partitions an application program into“page segments” or “pages” (also sometimes referred to as chunks orblocks). Pages may be formed by observing the manner in which theapplication program is conventionally installed and executed.

Pages are arbitrarily sized portions of a streamable application and mayconsist of for example, one or more software instructions, a portion ofmultimedia data, a portion of a game engine, one or more portions of oneor more application files or registry entries, or any combinationthereof. Pages may be fixed or variable in size. For example, highlycorrelated portions of an application may be grouped together intolarger pages. Generally, any application can be delivered in page form(e.g., via application streaming); however, some applications mayrequire a larger portion of their corresponding software to be presenton a target device at runtime than others.

Many applications only use a limited set of the instructions and datathat comprise their total memory footprint for any given set of tasks orevents within the application. One way of forming page segments is toassociate tasks or events within an application with the correspondinginstructions and data that are used to execute them.

Pages may be formed manually, or using automated utilities, or in ahybrid manner.

Streaming Definitions

“Pagefeeding” is defined herein as delivery of pages by an applicationsource to a target device using streaming.

“Streaming” is defined herein as delivery of portions, such as pages, ofan application during execution of the streaming application.

An “application source” or “appfeeder” is defined herein as storage andcorresponding physical or logical controls that can act as a source fordelivery of an application to a target device. An application source foran application may comprise one or many memories or other forms ofsoftware repository, localized or distributed, that can be controlled toresult in download of the given application to the target device.

A “pagefeeder” is defined herein as one or more application sourcesthat, together, are capable of pagefeeding to a target device. Apagefeeder may include application sources that, by themselves, cannotperform pagefeeding. In the context of gaming, a “pagefeeder” may alsobe called a “game streamer”. Some appfeeders may be able to act aspagefeeders. “Streaming” is just one type of downloading.

Partials

In practice, only a partial “seed” portion of an application (“Partial”)may be required to launch and provide at least initial functionality ofan application on a target device. A Partial may comprise, for example,either directly or as page segments, portions or all of a minimum set offiles, directory information, registry entries, environmental variablechanges, or some combination thereof required for launching theapplication. A Partial may include an application's executable and DLLsthat are necessary for execution. In some cases, a Partial may comprisean initial execution environment of an application. A Partial typicallycomprises 5-10% of a complete application package. The contents and sizeof a Partial may be adjusted depending, for example, on the total sizeof the application and the application functions intended to be madeinitially available.

In a preferred embodiment, a Partial includes a correspondingapplication's frequently accessed page segments. A Partial for a gamemay, for example, comprise a set of page segments that correspond to theintroduction video, menus, game engine and first tutorial level of thegame. Generally, it is advantageous for a Partial to be a minimumpartial portion of the game or other application package required to getthe game or application ‘up and going’ immediately on a target device.

An example of a Partial of a game is a set of pages that correspond tothe introduction video, menus, game engine and first tutorial level of acomputer game. Using Partials, the ‘time-to-play’ of corresponding gamescan be substantially reduced in comparison to conventional full gamedownloads. In some embodiments, a Partial is downloaded to a targetdevice, enabling the user to begin executing the correspondingapplication before the Body has been delivered. Assuming that a Partialcorresponds to 10% of the size of a typical game installer, the‘time-to-play’ may by reduced by over 90% by not having to wait for theBody to be delivered before launch. Time savings may also accrue due touse of installation-free virtualized applications.

In a preferred embodiment, a target device's persistent cache ispopulated with one or more Partials. These Partials are integrated intothe target device's local library of applications to provide a seamlessselection of applications to the end user. As the target device containsat least Partials (or greater) of the library applications, the user caninstantly launch any one or more applications in the local librarywithout any delays associated with delivery of additional software. Thismeans that (assuming Partials comprising about 10% each of theircorresponding applications) a target device with 8 Gb of allocatedmemory can behave like an 80 Gb target device.

In a preferred embodiment, Partials on a target device are kept in anencrypted state at all times until just before execution.

In some embodiments, a Partial of a target application to be run on atarget device is created by executing the target application until apredefined point, such as the completion of the first level in acomputer game, and recording all page requests performed by the targetdevice.

In some embodiments, Partial creation is performed by utilizing the sametools used to package the target application, such as ApplicationJukebox.

In some embodiments, a Partial is delivered by downloading pages of anapplication until an executable threshold is reached, at which point thePartial may optionally be launched automatically.

In some embodiments, an application is automatically launched on atarget device once a corresponding Partial is delivered to the targetdevice.

By using Partials to provide immediate application execution, bandwidthrequirements can be lessened and time-shifted. The remainder of anapplication (“Body”) can be delivered during execution of the contentwithin the Partial. As a result, application streaming can be effectiveeven where bandwidth and quality of communications service arecompromised. Also, by delivering the Body in pages, additionalapplication features can be made available while the application isalready running.

The Body or entirety of an application can be delivered by, for example,downloading, demand paging, using a predictive engine in the cloudserver to predictively stream required portions of the application basedon recent requests and learned behavior from previous usage patterns, byusing a predictive engine on the target device to make requests to thecloud server based on required portions of the application as predictedusing current status, and/or by using any concurrent or serialcombination of these methods.

Virtualizing Applications

Applications may be prepared for rapid virtualization by packaging themin a pre-virtualized form. Application Jukebox is a popular tool thatenables applications to be virtualized and broken into pages via apackaging process that does not require that the application berecompiled or recoded. Application Jukebox performs the packagingprocess through semi-automatic studio software.

As described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/509,210, applicationpackaging, may be performed by installing the target application on aclean physical or virtual computer system on which relevant files andoperating system parameters are known. For example, on a Windows 95-typesystem, application packaging can be performed where the contents of theregistry are known, and files prior to the installation of the targetapplication are known. By knowing the state of the machine before theinstallation of the target application, changes made to the installcomputer system caused by the installation of the target application onthe install computer system can be determined.

It may sometimes be required to run the target application on theinstall computer system so that any final installation steps needed bythe target application can be determined. This need may be determinedmanually on a case-by-case basis, or automatically using anappropriately configured utility, or semi-automatically using acombination of a utility and manual work.

The target application may be preprocessed. A preprocessing phase mayinclude generating an index containing information of registry changes,files, and directories created by the installation of the targetapplication; breaking up the target application into page segments(which may be encrypted and/or compressed); and placing the targetapplication on an application sourcing server.

Implementing Application Streaming

In demand-based application paging (“demand paging”), a pagedapplication may begin execution with a subset of its pages on a targetdevice. Pages are chosen for delivery to the target device (or not) whenan attempt is made to access them (e.g., if an accessed page is notpresent and a page fault occurs).

Application streaming from the cloud using demand paging is also knownas ‘Cloudpaging’.

Unlike linear multimedia content, such as music and video, games andother applications generally execute non-linearly. As a result, it isadvantageous for application streaming to respond to how a user utilizesan application.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of delivery of non-linear content from acloud server (200) to a PC (210) over a data network in accordance withsome embodiments. The application to be delivered (220) resides in thecloud. After the target device (200), in this case a PC, has received aPartial via a download, it begins execution of the application. Overtime, the target device (210) may require specific additional pagesegments (230) to be sent from the cloud to continue executing theprogram. In practice, these additional page segments may not be linearlyadjacent to one another in the original cloud hosted application (220).In an inventive aspect, blocks are streamed from the cloud server (200)in the order in which they are requested (230) from the target device(210).

FIG. 3 shows an example of delivery of non-linear content usingcompression. Specific page segments from files resident on a server areput in order for delivery and compressed, sent to a client system,decompressed, and placed into a client application cache for execution.Page segments may be compressed individually, or a set of pages may becompressed as a unit.

In prediction-based paging (“predictive paging”), a paged applicationmay begin execution with a subset of its pages on a target device. Pagesare chosen for delivery to the target device (or not) when a predictiveengine predicts that an attempt to access then is likely imminent. Inthis manner, pages may be delivered to the target device in advance ofwhen they are needed. It is particularly advantageous to deliver pagesindicated by a predictive engine when attempted execution of theindicated pages will cause a page fault.

Various methods of choosing pages for delivery may be effective. Forexample, in response to a page access attempt or predicted requiredpage, the particular page required may be delivered; or a set of pagescorresponding to one or more functions that use the required page may bedelivered; or all pages in the application not currently resident on thetarget device may be delivered when one non-resident page is required.

With respect to delivery of pages corresponding to particular functions,for example, if a user is currently playing a game through the end of afirst level, and a page from a second level is required (by demand orprediction), it may be advantageous to choose to deliver all pages thatmay be used during play of the second level. Gameplay approaching athird level may produce a similar result with respect to pages from thethird level.

In some embodiments, the Body or entirety of an application ispredictively streamed from the cloud server, in part or in entirety, byreceiving a request for a first page segment of a streaming application,checking a page segment request database, predicting a second pagesegment request based on the page segment request database, and sending,in response to the request, data associated with the first page segmentand data associated with the second page segment. In an embodiment, thepage segment request database includes probabilities or means fordetermining probabilities that a second page segment will be requestedgiven that the first page segment has been requested. In anotherembodiment, the technique further includes piggybacking the dataassociated with the second page segment on a reply to the request forthe first page segment.

Various embodiments can use demand paging, predictive paging, or both.

Generally, it is advantageous for pages to be streamed by an applicationsource to a target device in a prioritized manner so that pagescorresponding to particular functions of the application are deliveredapproximately contemporaneously compared to pages corresponding to otherfunctions of the application.

In some embodiments, application streaming operates on the principle ofallowing streamed executing applications to have access to theirdependent resources through a transient memory space or buffer(‘cache’). In memory-limited devices, buffered data ideally comprisesthe minimum resource necessary to perform a selected task, thusminimizing required cache size. In battery-limited devices, it may bedesirable to use a larger cache size to avoid potentially excessivestreaming-related network communication.

In application streaming, the cache may contain much more than asequential file resource. Depending on the application, the cache caninclude, for example, some combination of data files, program code and aconfiguration database required for an application to execute.

Once a minimal portion of the application program is delivered on thetarget device, the user can launch the application program as if acomplete version of the application were present in the target device'slocal memory. From the point of view of the target device's operatingsystem and from the point of view of the application itself, thatapplication appears to be located wholly locally on the target device.

A pagefeeder streams pages to the target device over a network as theapplication executes on the target device. The target device stores thepages in a cache. Pages are requested by the target device from thepagefeeder whenever a page fault occurs from the cache on behalf of theapplication. The target device prefetches one or more pages from thepagefeeder, or the pagefeeder streams one or more additional pages tothe target device based on the pattern of page requests for thatparticular application.

Generally, if pages are compressed by the pagefeeder before transmissionto the target device, the target device will decompress the pages toretrieve the original contents.

Portals and Application Distribution

An ‘Application Distribution Network’ (ADN) comprises systems andmethods used to deliver and manage applications.

An ‘ADN cloud’ is the online presence of an ADN for provisioningapplications and data from the cloud. An ADN cloud can consist of, forexample, a global portal, application delivery servers, as well as otheronline systems such as databases or network file storage devices orsystems.

In some inventive embodiments, an ADN comprises a number of cloud-basedservices (ADN cloud) provided over a Wide Area Network (WAN) to one ormore network-attached local devices (local boxes). These local boxeshandle the provisioning of a wide range of applications over a LocalArea Network (LAN) to end users within an organization. With the aid ofsuch an ADN, organizations with little or no IT expertise can haveaccess to a quick, minimal setup solution for obtaining, provisioningand distributing software applications to users within the organizationwith reduced time and cost overheads.

The ADN Cloud is part of the resilience of the ADN and, advantageously,is capable of meeting highly variable demand. If a large organizationsuddenly finds that its local box is not operating, then its entire userbase could be immediately switched to obtaining applications from theADN Cloud. It is advantageous for the system on which the ADN Cloud isbuilt to be capable of coping with such changes in demand.

There are a number of possible solutions that could provide the hostingplatform for the ADN Cloud. For example: Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)from Amazon, App Engine Service from Google, and Windows Azure servicefrom Microsoft.

Some embodiments utilize two types of web management portals: ‘localportals’ and ‘global portals’.

A ‘local portal’ is a management portal residing on one or more localboxes. A local portal may be used by admin users to conduct managementtasks, such as management of applications, licensing, user accounts andprovisioning for an organization or other networked group. In apreferred embodiment, a local portal can also act as an access point forend users to access their applications on a day-to-day basis. As theremay be more than one local box within an organization, there may also bemore than one local portal. Each one will be synchronized with otherlocal boxes so that users can use local portals interchangeably. As aresult, they will see the same information no matter which local portalthey use as their access point.

A ‘global portal’ is a cloud based management portal. It can be usedmainly by ADN users to view and manage data relating to customers, suchas available applications, licenses, upgrades and patches. A globalportal will also store data from local portals as a backup for the localinstances, and serve as an access point for end users when their localportal is unavailable. Advantageously, a global portal resides withinthe ADN cloud, holds the data for various organizations (as synchronizedfrom their respective local portals) and acts as a failover access pointshould an organization not have access to its respective local portals.A global portal can also act as a point of access for ADN users wishingto look up customer information, usage statistics or high level reports.

An ‘application delivery server’ is a system that delivers anapplication delivery service. In a preferred embodiment, an applicationdelivery server is an Application Jukebox streaming server. It can behosted within the ADN cloud (“AJ cloud”) or within a local box (“AJlocal”).

User Types

In some preferred embodiments, three types of user may be defined: ‘endusers’, ‘admin users’ and ‘ADN users’.

An ‘end user’ is any user that benefits from delivered applications on atarget device. In a preferred embodiment, an end user can be an employeeor member of an organization. This is the user that will access theirapplications through the ADN on a day-to-day basis.

An ‘admin user’ is a user that manages one or more local portals. In apreferred embodiment, an admin user may be a member of staff within anorganization responsible for software deployment. This will typically bea user in an IT role, and may be the person that ordered the local boxand configured the service for their organization.

An ‘ADN user’ (or ADN cloud user) is a user who manages an ADN cloud. Ina preferred embodiment, an ADN user may be a member of the ADN cloudfacility staff who is, for example, but not limited to, responsible forcustomer management, order processing, system monitoring, businessstrategy, or business management.

Local Boxes

A ‘local box’ locally provisions applications over a network such as anorganization's LAN. A local box provisions applications by hosting alocal version of the ADN cloud service. A local box can include, forexample, application delivery servers, a web management local portal,and stored applications.

In some preferred embodiments, a local box is the device that end usersinitially connect to in order to gain access to applications. A localbox can act in such capacity as a local point of contact for targetdevices in an ADN, providing a portion or all of the services that areavailable within the global ADN at speeds that would be expected from alocal device connected on a LAN.

In some preferred embodiments, a local box's main purpose is to handleprovisioning of applications to end-user target devices within anorganization's LAN on a day-to-day basis. A local box can be, forexample, a relatively small network-attached device (e.g., a PC),network server, workstation, Network-Attached Storage (NAS) drive, orother network-connected computer-readable storage device. More specificexamples of a local box in a compact form include a Windows Server-basedNAS device such as the Acer Aspire easyStore H340, and Linux-baseddevices such as the Netgear ReadyNAS.

In some preferred embodiments, a synchronization agent (“sync agent”) isused to transfer data between the global portal and a local portal.During normal operation, this synchronization ensures that informationfor a particular organization (such as application, license, user andconfiguration information) is present and accurate across local boxesand/or the ADN cloud. In some embodiments, when a new local box is addedto an organization, or an existing local box is reset following afailure, the sync agent downloads existing shared data for thatorganization from the global portal to the new local box. In someembodiments, the sync agent is also used to manage communication betweenlocal boxes within an organization.

In some embodiments, a sync agent is resident on each of one or morelocal boxes.

In some embodiments, the sync agent informs other local boxes within alocal network when a local box serves a license for an application.

In some embodiments, local boxes poll the sync agent for licenseavailability before serving a license.

In some embodiments, local boxes inform the sync agent after they servethe license.

By providing up-to-date information on license availability, the syncagent enables continued license provision availability within a localnetwork when a local box ceases to provide effective ADN service(failover).

Sync Agent

Advantageously, an ADN can be configured so that, when communicationswith one or more local boxes in an organization fail, remaining localboxes continue to be able to provision applications and licenses totarget devices within the local network. To do so, local boxes shouldstore properties and usage information of licenses and applications, aswell as pertinent information about the organization. Licenseinformation can include, for example, the number of licenses owned andfor which applications, license details, and total and remaining licenseduration. Application information can include, for example, applicationsavailable, application version numbers and patch details, and hardwareand software system requirements to execute respective applications.Organizational information can include, for example, administratoridentity and credential details, network security, network topology andcurrent network location. Network location can be used for, for example,geographic restrictions on licenses, which may only permit softwareconsumption in particular networks or countries. License, application,and organizational information can be kept accurate and up to dateacross local boxes and the ADN cloud using a sync agent.

Advantageously, for a sync agent using SOAP/XML based API calls, when achange (alteration, addition or deletion) is made on a local box orwithin the ADN cloud to the properties of an entity (an application orlicense or the organization itself) within an organization's ADN, thechanged information is pushed (“synchronized”) to each of theorganization's application sources (including the ADN cloud). Once aresponse is received from each of the organization's application sourceconfirming that the change has been made, the changed information isconsidered updated, and can be marked as such in a change log or otherrecord. If an application fails to respond, it is considered “offline”by still-connected application sources of the organization, and amessage is queued in the device that initiated the change to notify theoffline application source (on reconnection) of the changed information.

When a local box attempts to revert to a “connected” state (remove itsoffline status) or is newly installed, it negotiates with one or moreother application sources within the organization's ADN to determinewhether there are information change messages queued or other waitinginformation changes. Once the connecting local box has received allwaiting information changes, it can register itself with theorganization's information sources as connected and return toinformation change synchronization as described above.

The ADN cloud can be made available to local boxes as a source fromwhich reconnecting local boxes can obtain outstanding informationchanges. Generally, however, local boxes that are known to be in syncwith the ADN cloud will be able to provide information changes morequickly within the corresponding local network and without augmentingexternal data traffic to the ADN cloud.

In some embodiments, local boxes can occasionally broadcast a checksumof all or parts of synchronized information (or broadcast parts or anentirety of the synchronized information itself) to other local boxes ina corresponding organization's ADN in order to ensure that thesynchronized information is up-to-date and accurate. If a record is outof sync, then a conflict resolution scheme can be used, such as keepingthe most recently modified record, keeping the most substantiallymodified record, or merging conflicting records.

Local Box Deployment

An organization can obtain a new local box by (for example) purchasing anetwork-attached storage (NAS) device and downloading an add-on orplugin from a global portal that can be installed on that device andthat encompasses ADN services. The add-on module can make use of amanufacturer's SDKs for the storage device to incorporate ADN servicesinto the normal device functionality.

Alternatively, ADN services can be included in a base image for a deviceby the manufacturer so that the device is delivered to the organizationin a pre-configured state.

In some preferred embodiments, when an organization first installs a newlocal box and connects it to and accesses it on their network, theorganization is presented with a set-up wizard. The wizard guides adminusers through the process of configuring the local box. The wizard canrequire, for example, information necessary for end users to begin usingthe local box service, such as which applications should be used and howmany licenses are available. This process can require admin users toidentify themselves and their respective organizations so that thesystem can retrieve any information they have previously provided,saving them from having to repeat configuration steps.

ADN Cloud Implementation

FIG. 4A shows an example of an ADN 100, comprising an ADN cloud 101 thatis connected over a WAN to an organization's LAN 175 via theorganization's router 150. The LAN comprises connected local boxes 155and target devices 160.

FIG. 4B shows an example of an ADN 100 with an organization with asimple infrastructure comprising one local box 155.

FIG. 4C shows an example of an ADN 100 in which one target device 165 isremotely connected to an organization's local network through a VirtualPrivate Network (VPN).

In some preferred embodiments, it is advantageous for applicationsoftware and data to be delivered to target devices 160 from local boxes155 or the ADN cloud 101 by using cloudpaging, or streaming andvirtualization. Cloudpaging can be implemented using ApplicationJukebox. Delivering applications in this way allows an end user toaccess their applications from any target device on their networkwithout the need for installing the applications on every target device.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an ADN cloud 101, comprising one or moreapplication delivery server(s) 500, local box sync agent(s) 120, globalportal(s) 125, file storage server(s) 130, ADN cloud database 110, ADNcloud storage 135, load balancer 140, and a firewall 145, in accordancewith some preferred embodiments.

FIG. 6A shows an example of a local box 155, comprising an applicationdelivery server 600, a local box sync agent 610 (used to sync data witha global portal), a local portal 620, network shares 630, a local boxdatabase 640, and local box storage 650.

FIG. 6B shows an example of a local box 155, comprising an applicationdelivery server 600, a local box sync agent 610 (used to sync data witha global portal), a local portal 620, network shares 630, a local boxdatabase 640, and local box storage 650.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an ADN. The ADN comprises an ADN cloud 101,which comprises one or more application delivery server(s) 600, localbox sync agent(s) 610, global portal(s) 125, file storage server(s) 130,ADN cloud database 110, ADN cloud storage 135, load balancer 140, and afirewall 145. The ADN further comprises at least one connection of theADN cloud over a WAN to an organization's LAN 175 via the organization'srouter 150. The LAN comprises connected local boxes 155 and targetdevices 160.

In some preferred embodiments, the ADN cloud makes available toorganizations a repository of centrally packaged applications that canbe distributed to end users. During initial set-up or day-to-daymanagement of their local box (or boxes), admin users can selectapplications from the central repository that they wish to be loadedonto their local box for provisioning to end users.

Packaging is the “cloudification” of an application. Advantageously, itis performed once, and then the package can be streamed in parts to atarget device. On the target device, the stream is cached, thenvirtualized (using the “file system hook”), then becomes executable.

In some embodiments, organizations have access to the full complement ofapplications provided through the ADN cloud. There may also bespecialized provisioning of applications, such as to particularorganizations or organization types.

ADN Networks

An ADN local network comprises one or more local boxes and one or morelocal portals, along with corresponding resources for providing relatedfunctions, as well as one or more target devices and/or end users, andcan include one or more sync agents.

In some embodiments, an ADN local network may be separated from thenetwork(s) and other resources comprising the ADN cloud, by, forexample, differences in bandwidth; one network (e.g., the networkcontaining the ADN cloud) can be a WAN, while the other network (e.g.,the local network) can be a LAN; one or more firewalls or other securitymeasures between the two networks (or sets of networks); one or moregateway servers; or the local network can use an aliased IP addressspace or other address space logically distinguishable from that used bythe ADN cloud.

A “local network”, depending on context, refers either to a network (ornetworks) containing resources re-serving applications and licensesprovided by an ADN cloud; or to both the network and the re-servingresources.

Security may require restricting target devices from communicationsbeyond a corresponding local network.

In some embodiments, target devices can communicate with an ADN cloudonly on failover.

In some embodiments, target devices cannot communicate directly with anADN cloud.

Selecting Application Sources

In some embodiments, an end user can obtain an application from any ofthe application sources, including the local boxes 155 or the ADN cloud101, depending on which is considered most suitable. Suitability can bemeasured by a weighting, calculated using, for example, availability ofapplication sources, ping time to application sources, current load ofapplication sources, contents of respective application libraries ofapplication sources, and compatibility of application sources with auser's target device.

In some preferred embodiments, suitability of application sources ismeasured when an application is launched.

In some embodiments, the source for provisioning of an application maychange dynamically during runtime (or otherwise during provisioning),and the suitability of application sources can be determinedperiodically, continuously or at predefined or otherwise various pointsduring provisioning.

For example, end users 165 in FIG. 4A could both be obtaining theirapplications from local box 155. In another scenario, both end users 165could be obtaining their applications from local box 155. In anotherscenario, end user 165 could be obtaining their applications from localbox 155, and end user 165 from local box 155.

Further, in some preferred embodiments, each of the applications for anyend user could be coming from different sources, depending on thesuitability of each local box when each application was launched.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an ADN 100 that delivers applications to anorganization with three local boxes 155, similar to the topology of FIG.4A. In this case one of the local boxes 155 is offline, and so is notcapable of serving applications. End users will have applications servedfrom online local boxes 155 or the ADN cloud 101, depending on theirsuitability weightings. Generally, given enough capacity in theorganization's local boxes, end users will tend to have applicationsserved from local boxes 155 (if available), rather than the ADN cloud101.

In a preferred embodiment, extensive failover management allowscontinued end user access to applications from alternative sources inthe event of hardware or software failure of a local box.

In some preferred embodiments, organizations with an end user base thatsurpasses the abilities of a single local box can acquire additionallocal boxes, allowing the ADN to manage the load balancing and failoverbetween them; or (generally more practical for larger organizations withgreater in-house IT expertise) install multi-instance ADN cloud server(e.g., Jukebox Server) infrastructure with multiple points of redundancyand load balancing that the ADN will consider as a single (albeitrelatively resource intensive) local box.

In some preferred embodiments, end users can add new applications totheir target device with a simple one or two click process, withoutrequiring full software downloads or complex installation procedures.

In some preferred embodiments, an end user can fall back on the ADNcloud for access to their applications should the ADN service on theirlocal box become unavailable.

In some preferred embodiments, ADN cloud services, working in tandemwith services provided by any local boxes, facilitate strict softwarelicense management (generally, employing Digital Rights Management, or“DRM”) to ensure the enforcement of software licensing policies.

Application Jukebox

In some preferred embodiments, Application Jukebox is the technologychosen to handle the provisioning of applications to end users. Inaccordance with a preferred embodiment, each local box contains a singleJukebox Server. The number of installed local boxes and thespecifications of each local box (such as connection bandwidth, networkcard speed, RAM, and storage space) will typically help determine thelimit on the number of applications that can be served and the number ofusers that can access those applications concurrently before performanceis impeded.

With Application Jukebox, applications are converted using theApplication Jukebox Studio into a streamable package that consists ofdata required to run a particular application on an end-user machineincluding, for example, application files and registry keys, as well asmeta-data explaining where those files and keys need to be placed. Whenan end user requests an application, the parts of the application thatare required for the first launch of the application (the Partial) aresent to an Application Jukebox Player on the end user's target device.The Jukebox Player will then virtualize those parts of the applicationonto the machine, overlaying a virtual file system and registry hiveover the file system and registry hive that physically reside on themachine. This makes the machine believe, for all intents and purposes,that the application is physically installed.

Application packages are delivered by an Application Jukebox Server,which consists of three main components: an admin service, a licenseservice and a stream service. The stream service is responsible for thedelivery of application content to the Jukebox Player on a targetdevice, while the license service manages and enforces the licensepolicies defined by the system administrator for the applications beingprovisioned. The admin service ties together each of the servercomponents and provides a portal through which system administrators canadd and maintain applications and license policies to the system. Insome embodiments, users will have no interaction with the Jukebox adminservice in an AJ local or AJ cloud, as provisioning will be managed byeither the local portal or the global portal, which both use the JukeboxServer APIs to manage streaming applications.

In some embodiments, each local box used in the ADN will contain asingle, self-contained Jukebox server (comprising of one admin service,one license service and one stream service) that is capable of handlingthe provisioning of applications to target devices on its own. Shouldthis AJ local device fail, provisioning is handed over to the AJ cloud:a Jukebox Server infrastructure consisting of many instances of eachcomponent, fully redundant and load balanced, capable of handling alarge number of sessions at any one time. In a preferred embodiment, theAJ cloud serves organizations should they require the failover service.

An instance of Jukebox Player running on an end user's target device canprovide end users with a button to direct them to a local portal or theglobal portal so that adding applications to their system is as close toa single-click process as possible.

One feature of Application Jukebox is that served virtualizedapplications can be kept in persistent cache memory of a target device.This reduces or eliminates jitters due to interruptions in broadbandaccess, and can enable the application to be run offline, even when thenetwork connection is completely lost, for a grace period determined bythe licensing policy.

Selecting Application Sources and Load Balancing

In some embodiments, at any given time, each end user is connected to acorresponding primary local box (generally, several users share eachlocal box) from which their applications are provisioned. In the eventof a failure of an end user's primary local box, the end user can beoffered a list of alternative application sources, which may includeother local boxes, if available, or the ADN cloud.

In some embodiments, when a target device is in failover mode to asecondary application source, the Jukebox Player on the target devicecontinually monitors the primary local box and prompts the end user torevert to provisioning from that primary local box as soon as it becomesavailable.

In a preferred embodiment, the application delivery servers in localboxes are utilized in real time, with a target device pullingapplications from whichever application delivery server is most suitableto serve it in that instance. In some embodiments, each applicationdelivery server has an awareness of an end user's session in order toserve content and track the amount of usage by that end user from eachapplication delivery server.

In some embodiments, before launching an application, a target devicechooses an application server that is the most suitable at the time, andcommits its end user session to that application delivery server for theduration of its application provision, even though the chosenapplication delivery server may not remain the most suitable.

In some embodiments, a target device continues to receive anapplication, even if the local box serving the application fails duringdelivery. The AJ local within a local box is able to deliver portions ofan application for sessions that are not actively running on its Jukeboxinstance. This allows remaining application delivery servers to beavailable to the target device, regardless of which application deliveryserver the session is currently residing. In a preferred embodiment, thetarget device requests a new session from an alternative local box whenan outage is detected.

In some embodiments, the ADN cloud is considered a last resort whenevaluating the suitability of multiple application sources, and istherefore not included in suitability weighting calculations. It ischosen when no local boxes are available, or no local boxes havesufficient remaining capacity.

In some embodiments, an application source's suitability weighting iscalculated using a “first to respond” algorithm. Each of the applicationsources is pinged over the network by a target device to see if it isavailable, and the first one to respond is considered to be the“closest” or “fastest” and used to deliver the application.

In some embodiments, suitability weighting calculations are performed onan ADN cloud or local box server, and the target device returns theresults from ping tests to the said server for evaluation during launchrequests. In some embodiments, the “first to respond” algorithm issimilar to how the Application Jukebox Player currently load balancesstream services in a multi-service setup. A “first to respond” algorithmmay not necessarily be the most effective suitability weighting metric,as pings typically represent the “nearest” server and not necessarilythe most “available”. For example, even though a first local box (LB-1)resides within the same department as an end user and as such respondsquickest to pings, it may be currently streaming a huge number ofapplications within that department, while a second local box (LB-2),which is only slightly further away in an adjacent department, may notserving any applications. In this example, the second local box (LB-2)could be used to reduce the load on the first local box (LB-1).

In some embodiments, a “round-robin” algorithm is used in selecting asuitable application source for delivering an application to a targetdevice. Application sources are selected once each, with a newapplication source selected when a new request arrives. When the lastapplication source is reached, selection begins again at the firstapplication source.

Using a round-robin algorithm is likely to evenly distribute applicationdelivery requests between application sources. However, it does not takeinto account how much effort is involved in dealing with thoseapplication delivery requests. So, for example, a first local box (LB-1)could be sent a first request to launch a small, pre-cached application,while a second local box (LB-2) is a request to buffer a much largerapplication. As a result, the second local box (LB-2) is going to beunder a greater load than the first local box (LB-1) when the next roundof application delivery requests arrive.

In another embodiment, a “least loaded” algorithm is used in selecting asuitable application source for delivering an application to a targetdevice. A weight assigned to available application sources indicates howloaded a source is at the time of the request. In some embodiments,using Application Jukebox, a number of factors are considered whenevaluating how loaded an AJ local or AJ cloud is, such as the number ofactive sessions in a “Running” state, the number of active sessions in a“Buffering” state, and the system resources available to that particularserver. In some embodiments, the number of active sessions in the“Buffering” state is given a greater influence on the suitabilityweighting calculation than the number of active sessions in the lessresource demanding “Running” state.

In some embodiments, application sources are allocated randomly toapplication launch requests.

In some embodiments, the end user of a target device manually chooses anapplication source.

In a preferred embodiment, when an application request is first madefrom a target device, the Jukebox Player on said target device sends therequest to the nearest portal it can find. This could be a local portal,but it could be the global portal if no local boxes are available. Thus,when the process describes evaluating each of the servers available atany one time, it is likely that one of the options will be the sameapplication source that is currently processing the application request.If the local portal on a local box is handling the launch request, it isunlikely that failover to the ADN Cloud would occur, as the JukeboxServer on the local box should be running and capable of processing thelaunch request.

Alternatively, instead of a local box, a large-scale Jukebox Serverinfrastructure can be used with several AJ local services running acrossmultiple machines, fully load balanced using either DNS or networkhardware. A local portal can be added to this setup to manageinfrastructure, applications, licenses and user accounts, as well ashandle failover to the ADN Cloud, if necessary. In organizations wherethere is a large number of users and a more complex Jukebox Serverinfrastructure is required, IT administrators can combine the power,flexibility and load balancing of a multi-instance Jukebox Serverinfrastructure with the global backup functionality, user experience andsecurity offered by the ADN. A multi-server Jukebox infrastructure canbe treated as a single local box, although it would likely be moreheavily weighted during the server selection process than asingle-server local box configuration due to its larger systemresources.

License Management

In some preferred embodiments, during initial setup or day-to-daymanagement of a local box, admin users are asked to define for eachapplication the number of licenses they have purchased for theirorganization (the number of machines on which the application can beconcurrently provisioned).

In some embodiments, licenses can be grouped into three categories:

-   -   i. Unlimited: Allows concurrent provisioning of an application        on an unlimited number of machines. Useful for, for example,        open source applications.    -   ii. User-based: Allows concurrent provisioning of an application        on a set number of machines. Useful for, for example, a 10-user        license for a particular organization for a particular        application.    -   iii. Site Wide: Allows concurrent provisioning of an application        on any number of machines within a particular organization.

In some preferred embodiments, when a specific number of availablelicenses is specified by an admin user, license enforcement is performedby the ADN cloud in conjunction with local boxes. License enforcementensures that only the specified number of end users in an organizationis allowed to launch an application at any given time. One way in whichthis can be accomplished is that each time an end user wishes to launchan application, the system determines, based on the number of licensesthat are available and the number of those licenses currently in usewithin the organization, whether the end user is allowed to proceed. Insome preferred embodiments, an admin user can specify which end users,or groups of end users, within an organization can access eachapplication license.

In a preferred embodiment, applications are distributed with a form oflicense protection. In some embodiments, a Volume License Key (VLK) mustbe available when the application is being packaged. A VLK is a productlicense key that allows a single key to be used for multiple applicationdeployments, typically legally restricted to one office or organization.If a VLK is included during packaging, the application package can beconsumed on target devices, depending on the restrictions of thelicense, without users entering an individual license key for eachtarget device.

In another embodiment, it is possible to disable any existing licensingchecks on applications, allowing the ADN system to control the licensingof the packaged application itself. Such a system may be referred to as“Just In Time” licensing. In some Just In Time licensing embodiments,licensing enforcements on applications that are packaged and madeavailable through the central repository are not machine specific. Insome other embodiments, Just In Time licensing could be expanded tohandle machine-specific licensing enforcement.

In a preferred embodiment, DRM is managed from the ADN Cloud(“cloud-managed DRM”). The ADN Cloud can be kept aware of licenseallocations in each organization, e.g., by respective sync agents.Advantageously, requests to allocate or release existing licenses arecommunicated to the ADN Cloud. Local boxes are given authority by theADN Cloud to distribute existing licenses within an organization.

The license management mechanism during load balancing and failover isdescribed in more detail in later sections.

Application Pre-Launching

In some preferred embodiments using Application Jukebox, the followingsteps take place for an end user to reach the point of launching anapplication.

When the Jukebox Player on a target device starts up, it runs a networkdiscovery task to find available local boxes in the organization. Itthen stores a ping response time for each discovered local box. Thetarget device also pings the ADN cloud to see if it is accessible.

The availability of each local box is visible to the end user via astatus window, available from an icon in the status bar of the JukeboxPlayer.

There is an “Add Applications” icon within the Jukebox Player thatdirects end users to the “My Applications” page of the local or globalportal that resides on an available local box (e.g., the local box withthe lowest ping time), or the global portal if no local boxes areavailable.

If no local boxes are available and the ADN cloud is also inaccessible,then the end user is notified to contact their admin user for helprestoring access to their applications.

Within the request for the “My Applications” page, the Jukebox Player onthe target device passes the results of the previous server ping teststo the local or global portal being used.

Preferably, the user is logged into an applications page automaticallyon access attempt. This reduces the amount of interaction required onthe end user's part, and thus the amount of time taken to accessapplications. Automatic login can be implemented, for example, using anidentifier of the target device being used to access the local or globalportal. Automatic login can also be implemented using the username ofthe end user currently logged on to the target device (e.g., in ActiveDirectory environments).

In some embodiments, the local or global portal asks the user forauthentication. Authentication can comprise a username and passwordcombination specified by the admin user.

Once authenticated, the local or global portal generates a list ofapplications available to the end user, as specified by the admin user.

Each listed application has a corresponding launch button for adding theapplication to the end user's Jukebox Player on their target device.

In some preferred embodiments, a local portal, hosted on a local box,provides end users with access to a page from which they can launch theapplications made available to them by an admin user (“applicationspage”). An applications page can be login protected, requiring end usersto enter their credentials to access their applications. Thesecredentials can be provided to end users by an admin user. Theapplications page can consolidate the applications available to an enduser from local boxes within a respective organization. If there are nolocal boxes available, end users can access their applications from thesame location on the global portal and applications will be provisionedfrom the ADN Cloud.

Application Launching

FIGS. 8, 9, 10 and 11 show an example of steps following an end useraccessing a “My Applications” page and selecting an application tolaunch. These steps determine whether the application can be launched,and if so, which server should be used to handle the request.

The following steps describe an application launch procedure inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 shows an example of an application launch procedure when a targetdevice has already been used to launch an application. When a launchrequest is received, the local portal may first confirm (for security)that the user is authorized to access that application. If they are not,then the launch process fails at this point. (See reference numeral810).

The local portal will then determine whether or not there are anylicense seats available for that application. (See reference numeral820).

FIG. 10 shows an example of determining whether license seats areavailable during application launch. (See reference numeral 820). Todetermine whether any license seats are available, the local portal willfirst check if the license seat utilization information on each of thelocal boxes is currently in sync, i.e., whether the license seatavailability information is current across all local boxes. (Seereference numeral 1000). It is advantageous to maintain an on-goingbackground process on each local box to monitor the sync status of otherlocal boxes; use of such a background monitoring process generally meansthat sync information is already shared and little (if anything) needsto be done to determine sync and license availability status.

If the local boxes are in sync then the portal will have a record of howmany seats are currently in use because usage information will have beencommunicated from the other local boxes when they created a session.

If the local boxes are not in sync then, generally, the local portalwill not be sure how many licenses are currently in use. It will howeverknow how many were in use when the local boxes last communicated and cantherefore assume that it can distribute a portion of the remaininglicense seats, depending on how many local boxes there are on thenetwork. The available licenses can thus be recalculated based onlicense availability sync information. (See reference numeral 1010). Forexample, if there are two local boxes on the network and a license had 8remaining seats when the local boxes last communicated, then each localbox can safely provision 4 new licenses before communication isrestored.

Once the number of remaining seats for the requested license has beencalculated, the local portal can determine whether or not the requestedapplication can be launched. If there are no available license seats,then the launch process fails. (See reference numeral 1020).

Before launching the application, the local portal will notify each ofthe other local boxes (including the cloud service) that the new sessionhas been created. (See reference numeral 1030). Reasons for this stepinclude: the other local boxes need to know that another license seat isin use for when they next need to launch an application; and should theend user lose communication with the local box, provisioning can failover to one of the other local boxes, which will need to know thedetails of the session.

Once the local portal has received confirmation that license seatutilization information was received by each of the other local boxes,the launch process can continue. (See reference numeral 1040). If any ofthe local boxes do not respond (see reference numeral 1050), then theprocess reverts to step 2 (see reference numeral 1010), to ensure thatthere are enough seats available with loss of communication to one ofthe local boxes.

If any local boxes were offline at the time when the session wascreated, the details of the session will be added to the queue ofinformation to be sent to those local boxes when they reconnect. (Seereference numeral 1040).

Returning to FIG. 9, the local portal then begins selecting which serveris the “best fit” for the user currently requesting the application.(See reference numeral 830). To do this, it uses the ping results sentwith the request from the “my applications” page. (See reference numeral800).

FIG. 11 shows an example of determining whether any local boxes areavailable for application provision. (See reference numeral 830). Thelocal portal will 1) ping the other online local boxes and 2) ask themto return a numerical value representing how much load they arecurrently under. This value can be calculated using for example, thenumber of sessions each local box is currently serving and its systemresources. (See reference numeral 1100).

The results from the requests (showing which local box is most loaded)will be combined with the client's ping results (showing which local boxis “nearest”—responds most quickly—to the target device being used bythe end user) to decide which server is best to use to launch theapplication. (See reference numeral 1120). This decision can be madebased on, for example, which local box with remaining capacity has theshortest ping time.

Returning to FIG. 9, following determination of local box availability(see reference numeral 830), if an available local box has beenselected, then the launch request will be sent to the Jukebox Server onthat local box and the resulting token (or error) returned to the user.

If this is not the first time this user has launched this application,and it was previously being obtained from the cloud service, the usercan be notified that their application provisioning has returned totheir primary local box; performance may be increased as a result.

Depending on any error message encountered, the local portal can try thenext best fit local box for launching the application.

FIG. 8 shows an example of application launch on an initial attempt tolaunch an application from a target device. Initial attempts to launchan application from a target device can proceed in a similar manner tosubsequent attempts, except that generally it will be unnecessary todetermine whether the application is in cloud failover. (See referencenumeral 970).

Returning to FIG. 9, if the local portal determines that there are nolocal boxes available (see reference numeral 830), then it will attemptto contact the ADN global portal. (See reference numeral 840).

If the global portal is available then the launch request will be sentto the global Jukebox service and the resulting token (or error message)returned to the user.

If this is the first application to be streamed from the cloud serviceduring the current session, then the user should be warned that there isa problem with their local boxes, their applications will be obtainedfrom the cloud, performance may be affected and they should contacttheir system administrator to rectify the problem. (See referencenumerals 850 and 860).

If this is not the first application to be streamed from the cloudservice during the current session, then there is no reason to repeatthe same message and the status icon in the Jukebox Player shouldindicate that applications are being obtained from the cloud.

If the ADN global portal is not available, or the application request tothe global Jukebox Service returned an error, then no local boxes areavailable to launch the application and the launch process fails.

Application Redelivery

FIG. 12 shows an example of choosing Partials to serve to a targetdevice in order to ‘re-deliver’ existing legacy applications, inaccordance with some embodiments. The cloud server initiates a scanlooking for installed applications on the target device. If atraditionally installed application is detected (1200), then the cloudserver checks whether it has a packaged copy of the same applicationavailable for delivery (1210). If a packaged cloud copy is available,then the user of said target device is prompted to choose whether toaccept cloud re-delivery of said traditionally installed application(1220). If the user accepts, the license key of the installedapplication is sent to the cloud server, and the application isuninstalled from the target device (1230). A Partial or entirety (or inbetween) of the application is then served from the cloud server to thetarget device with a matching license (1240).

In some embodiments, a Volume License Key (VLK) is inserted into theapplication when it is packaged.

In some embodiments, it is possible to disable any existing licensingchecks on applications, allowing the cloud server to control thelicensing of the packaged application itself. Such a system may bereferred to as “Just In Time” licensing.

In some Just In Time licensing embodiments, licensing enforcements onapplications that are packaged and made available through the centralrepository are not machine specific.

In some embodiments, application re-delivery is only used to deliverapplications with no licensing protection.

Enforcing License Policies

In some embodiments, a local portal in the process of launching a newapplication contacts other local boxes to query how many active sessionsthey are currently hosting in order to determine whether or not thereare enough seats (licenses or allowed concurrently-executed iterationsof an application) available to launch the application. This enablesrobust enforcement of license policies by broadly distributinginformation regarding seat availability.

Where local boxes communicate with each other to ensure that only theallocated number of license seats is provisioned to end users, licensepolicy enforcement (generally) can be guaranteed if the system ceasesprovisioning new applications when one or more of the local boxes becomedetached from the rest of the ADN.

For example, an organization can have two local boxes in two differentbuildings. In the case of a network outage that severs communicationbetween the two buildings, then there is no way for the local boxes toconfirm with one another (or without network) the number of licensescurrently in use. If an organization is only permitted a fixed number oflicenses, then application sources need to be completely sure thatlicensing policies are still enforced. In some embodiments, the solutionin this scenario is to halt new application provisioning until a networkadministrator can restore communication between application sources.However, with the exception of the missing communication link, theorganization would still have the resource of two fully functioninglocal boxes that end users could make use of these resources may bewasted without procedures for ensuring offline licensing policyenforcement.

In a preferred embodiment, the ADN takes a more nuanced approach tolicense usage monitoring to ensure that the ADN is able to continueprovisioning applications. In many systems, it is fair to accommodatefailure and accept that certain scenarios are extremely unlikely, and inthose cases, it is acceptable for the system to fail or shutdown. As theADN in a preferred embodiment is designed to overcome the problem ofsystem failure, it is important to ensure that the system continues tooperate for as long as possible.

A preferred embodiment can respond to scenarios in which local boxes areunable to communicate with one another. In some embodiments, the localbox handling a request for an application launch contacts the otherlocal boxes to make them aware of a new session (so that they can takeover that session if required for failover) before permitting thelaunch. This means that when communication is terminated between twolocal boxes, each of the local boxes would have known how many runningsessions there were across the network. If both local boxes are stillonline, just separated (not communicating with each other), then eachone adopts a share of the remaining available licenses.

In some embodiments, multiple local boxes may be unable to communicatewith each other while target devices are able to communicate withmultiple the local boxes. If a local box handling a launch request hasrun out of license seats but can determine that the target devicerequesting the application is able to see one of the other local boxes,it can recommend to the target device that it try obtaining a licensefrom that other local box.

In a preferred embodiment, the advanced license management provided byApplication Jukebox is used to ensure that the license policies andrestrictions are enforced for each application within the ADN network.When an application is requested, a license is created within an AJlocal or AJ cloud, and that Application Jukebox server will ensure thatno more than the permitted number of sessions is created for thatlicense.

With the introduction of load balancing to an ADN embodiment, where morethan one application delivery server is available to each end user whenan application is launched, the same application can be served from morethan one location. This means that (generally) the individualapplication delivery servers cannot enforce licensing policies. Forexample, if there is a license on one application delivery server thatwas limited to 10 concurrent users, some users could be streaming fromone of the other application delivery servers.

In a preferred embodiment, application licenses are stored globallywithin the ADN so that license information can be synchronized toapplication sources used to serve an organization. Application sourcesserving an organization include one or more local boxes and the ADNCloud. The ADN uses the global license information to manage and enforcelicensing policies across application delivery servers. This allows eachsession to be served from any of the available locations and gives theADN the ability to failover and load balance sessions rapidly betweenlocations.

In order for the local portal or global portal to quickly determinewhether license seats are available for a given application launchrequest, details of active sessions are abstracted from applicationdelivery servers, preferably all Application Jukebox servers, and storedwithin the ADN database.

In some embodiments, the same functionality could be achieved byquerying each of the Application Jukebox servers when an applicationlaunch request is received by an application source to see how manysessions each one is currently hosting. This could add significantcomplexity and delay launch of an application, for example, if any ofthe Application Jukebox servers fail to respond and timeout.

Storing Application Data

Application data or documents created by a streamed application duringan end user session can be saved for the end user by default to anetwork share on a local box. The user can also save their documents inan alternative location if they so wish. User documents saved to thenetwork share on a local box can also be backed up to the ADN cloud sothat they can be retrieved from any point on the ADN, and not be lost ifthe local box is reset or replaced.

Managing Failover

To ensure that end users always have access to their applications, anADN can be built to provide the ability for application provisioning tochange over (failover) to an alternative source in the event of a localbox failure. The main focus of this feature of the ADN is centered onensuring the best possible end user experience for anyone using theservice when a failure occurs.

In a preferred embodiment, an ADN has multiple layers of redundancy thatcan be called upon should a failure occur at any local box. A number offailure modes may be possible, including, for example:

-   -   i. Level 1: A recoverable local box failure. For example, a hard        drive needs replacing, or a hard reset is required but the        device is still recoverable.    -   ii. Level 2: Complete and unrecoverable failure of a local box.        The organization has an alternative local box available from        which applications can be obtained.    -   iii. Level 3: Complete and unrecoverable failure of a local box.        The organization has no other local boxes available within their        network.    -   iv. Level 4: Complete and unrecoverable failure of a local box.        End user has no Internet connection available for failover to        the ADN Cloud.

In the event of a level 1 failure that requires the operating system(OS) on the affected local box to be restored, the local box is left “asshipped” following the restoration. Once the local box has been restoredfollowing a level 1 failure, an admin user is directed through theinitial set-up process as if accessing the local box for the first time.During the initial setup following failure, the admin user is able toidentify herself, or her organization, to the set-up wizard, allowingtheir local box configuration, applications and data to be restored fromthe ADN cloud without information having to be re-entered. Once therestoration is complete, the local box is in the same state as beforefailure occurred.

In the event of a level 2 failure, provisioning of applications for endusers is switched to an alternative local box.

In the event of a level 3 failure, end users are given the option toswitch their application provisioning to the ADN cloud. If an end useraccepts, provisioning of their applications is switched to the ADNcloud. If an end user declines, they are notified there are no availableapplication sources and their application cannot be launched.

In the event of a level 4 failure, end users are notified that their oneor more applications cannot be launched. The end users can also beoffered suggestions regarding how to rectify the problem.

Following a level 2, 3 or 4 failure, the recovery process for a repairedor new replaced local box is the same as the recovery process from alevel 1 failure once the local box has been repaired or replaced.

In some embodiments, when an end user is obtaining applications from theADN cloud, the Jukebox Player on the end user's target deviceperiodically or continuously monitors the status of some or allnetworked local boxes, and prompts the end user to revert back to saidlocal boxes as soon as one or more is available.

FIG. 13 shows an example of failover for organizations using only asingle local box. For such organizations, the failover mechanism mayinvolve switching user access to the ADN Cloud at any point where theirlocal box is unavailable.

In some preferred embodiments, a Jukebox Player running on a targetdevice has an in-built knowledge of locations from which applicationscan be obtained, allowing it to quickly consider alternative sources inthe event of failure of the primary source. The application source touse is determined when an application is launched using suitabilitymetrics.

In a preferred embodiment, an application source list can be discoveredby a target device by performing a LAN discovery protocol, in a similarmanner to discovery of network printers and other peripherals on anEthernet LAN.

In some embodiments, a target device uses a network discovery protocolto discover a first application source. This application source providesthe target device with a pre-defined list of further application sources(if any). The pre-defined list can be manually created, or populatedautomatically using a network discovery protocol initiated by said firstapplication source.

In a preferred embodiment, the system used to handle load balancing ofapplications also handles system failover as part of the same process.When selecting the most suitable application source to serve anapplication, if the chosen application source is not responding, then itcan be ignored and other options explored. For this reason, systemfailover and load balancing can be thought of interchangeably withrespect to some preferred embodiments.

Portable Environments

ADN can be advantageously employed to address persistence of user datain the context of distributing applications in an on-demand environment.A “clean” desktop strategy can be adopted to reduce support burdens andoverheads and separate the provisioning of user desktops from theprovisioning of user applications.

In doing so, organizations can reduce the amount of time required toupdate a particular application or desktop image as the two areindependent environments. For example, if an organization makes use ofan on-demand application delivery mechanism, such as an ADN, then itonly needs to configure new machines with a basic operating system andmaintain this “base image”, instead of having to spend additional timeinstalling applications that may (or may not) be required. Use of avirtual desktop further reduces the time to provision new machines.Graphically rich applications, such as Adobe Creative Suite orAutodesk's AutoCAD, are some examples of applications that benefit fromprovisioning through an ADN.

“Clean” desktop strategies give IT administrators various options forstorage of user data such as saved documents and application data. AnADN is usable regardless of whether an organization has significant ITresources available, and can be used to implement roaming profiles orother modes of remotely accessible user environments. By using an ADN,organizations can prevent users from implementing individualized datamanagement solutions, such as saving to individual machines and portableflash devices.

In some preferred embodiments, within local boxes there resides anetwork share for all or some of the end users. Using ApplicationJukebox's configurable virtualization for applications provisionedthrough the ADN, the ADN system overrides the default save locationspecified by an end user's target device and prompts the applications tosave data to the network share. Alternatively, end users can change thesave location as they desire to make use of existing save locations.Advantageously, the default is to save data to the local box.

In some preferred embodiments, in order to give end users access totheir saved data wherever they access their applications, data in thenetwork shares on each local box is synchronized with a global fileshare within the ADN Cloud.

In some embodiments, Partials fitting or at least partiallyaccommodating a variety of potential user roaming profiles can bepresent on or made quickly available to a target device. This meansthat, even if little or nothing is known about who will use the targetdevice, even in an application-rich environment, an end user can beimmediately productive (or can immediately begin playing) using theirown licensed (or license-free) suite of applications.

Third Party ADN Linking

In some embodiments, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are linked tothe ADN cloud. This link, which can be maintained through a set of APIsfor ISVs and value-adding service providers, allows the addition offeatures to the ADN service including (for example) global high-levelreporting of license usage for ISVs, online validation by ISVs of thenumber of licenses reported by ADN member organizations to ensurelicense compliance, and purchasing of new or additional licenses for anorganization through the global portal.

In another embodiment, the ADN Cloud Services also provide a commercialplatform through which third parties can sell new or additional licensesto be provisioned to organizations already using the ADN, through theirown systems. This protocol can allow online stores such as amazon.com,or web hosting providers such as fasthosts.co.uk, to re-sell applicationlicenses provisioned through the ADN.

Accessing Global Usage Information

In a preferred embodiment, an ADN user can use the global portal toaccess information for each organization, such as the applications thatthey are deploying, the number of licenses they hold and how much totalusage there has been for each application. In some embodiments, ADNusers also have access to a set of reports indicating top-level usageinformation, such as the ‘most used application’ and ‘biggest customer’.

FIG. 14 shows an example of a graphical interface for access by adminusers to detailed breakdowns of application and license usage withintheir organization. This example shows the Software Reporting Interfacefor Application Jukebox, but other software and/or hardware withappropriate functionality can be used.

Adaptive Application Streaming in Cloud Gaming

The present application discloses inventions which, in various ways,push or otherwise provide immediately initially playable portions ofgames onto game play units, and when a game portion is selected forplay, stream additional components to said game play units. There aresynergistic advantages in combining this application-server architecturewith the application distribution network ideas which are also describedherein, but it should be noted that either of the two groups ofinventions can be exploited separately to great advantage, independentlyof the ideas in the other group of inventions.

The present application discloses inventions which, in various ways,push or otherwise provide immediately initially executable portions ofgames or other applications onto user environments, and when a game orother application is selected for use, stream additional components tosaid user environments.

According to a particularly advantageous class of embodiments, a serverin the cloud pushes immediately playable (or executable) portions ofgames or other applications (“Partials”), without a request or otherdirect input by a user for the corresponding games, over a network tointeractive game stations (or other application executing resources).Partials can be 5-10% of the size of complete games (e.g., only thatportion of a game necessary to play through a first level), meaning thata much larger number of games can be made available for immediate playthan otherwise possible. Games can be chosen for corresponding push ofPartials in various ways, including user preferences of one or manyusers, where one user's preferences include that user's game purchaseand play history, and potentially other shopping history and personalinformation.

Games corresponding to Partials can be packaged to contain all of thecomponents necessary for execution (e.g., texture maps, .dll's andregistry keys) so that, once an application package is present on a gamestation, a “file system hook” can be used to interdict and redirectoperating system calls to isolate an executing application package fromother game station functions. Packaged applications do not requireinstallation for play. Packaged applications can be broken up into“pages”, application portions reflecting actual code used duringexecution of corresponding game events or application functions. (APartial is at least that set of pages required for immediate play). Whena game station begins executing a Partial, the game station can signalthe cloud server to send—during gameplay—some or all of the rest of thepages of the game corresponding to the Partial. As pages correspondingto game content arrive at the game station, the game station can makesuch content available to a player—during gameplay!

In some embodiments, the cloud server can also delete pages or entiregames from a target device to make room for additional Partials orlarger game portions, or to reflect game license conditions.

In some embodiments, a proxy server (target proxy device) can bedesignated that receives Partials or larger game portions from a cloudserver, and then acts like a cloud server with respect to correspondinggame stations on the proxy server's local network.

In some embodiments, once a cloud server has pushed a Partial or largerportion of a game to a game station, that game station can act as apeer-to-peer serving node for that Partial or game portion. A gamestation can request pages from peer-to-peer nodes or, if unavailable onnodes, can request pages from the cloud server. A cloud server can alsoinstruct a node to push a Partial to another game station.

The disclosed innovations, in various embodiments, provide one or moreof at least the following advantages. However, not all of theseadvantages result from every one of the innovations disclosed, and thislist of advantages does not limit the various claimed inventions.

-   -   reduces or eliminates relevance of bandwidth reliability to        first execution of a game or other application;    -   reduces or eliminates relevance of network latency to execution        of a game or other application;    -   reduces the bandwidth necessary to an immediate and complete        user experience following first execution of a game or other        application;    -   reduces reliance on consistent network service quality for        ability to provide an immediate and complete user experience        following first execution of a game or other application;    -   enables effective management of a library of games or other        applications on a target device, while simultaneously providing        the ability to vastly expand the set of available immediately        initially executable games or other applications on the target        device;    -   enables prediction of games or other applications a user will        want to execute and provision of said desired items to the user        in an immediately initially executable form without the user        having to explicitly request the desired items;    -   enables frictionless, instant-gratification purchase or trial of        any of a large library of games or other applications available        for immediate play on a target device;    -   enables retailers, third parties or preference-tracking routines        to choose some or all of a large number of games or other        applications to be available on a target device for immediate        play;    -   inventive systems and methods can be fully implemented using        relatively limited infrastructure investment;    -   enables secure application distribution in embodiments where        game or other application components are delivered and stored in        an encrypted state;    -   enables digital rights management enforcement of licenses,        including for rental or subscription market models, in both        online and offline modes;    -   provides instant gratification following selection of a game or        application for execution, even if the game or application has        not previously been selected for execution or download;    -   resistant to geographically localized network traffic spikes or        troughs;    -   game or other application availability does not rely on a user        or end-user hardware manager (e.g., gaming café or business        organization) knowing ahead of time what software will be        desired or required on any given target device;    -   does not require advance choice of a game or other application;    -   embodiments utilizing virtualization do not require        installation;    -   does not require physical acquisition of software media;    -   allows display of the highest resolution of a game that a system        can render, without requiring extraordinary bandwidth; and    -   no noticeable lag between user input and resulting rendered game        or application.        Cloudpaging Games

Instant gratification gaming can be achieved using Cloudpaging andApplication Jukebox. Using Application Jukebox, a game is packaged intoa pre-virtualized form. The Partial is then intelligently delivered overa network from a cloud server to an end user's target device. With onlythis Partial, the user can jump into demanding graphics-intensive gametitles, while the remainder of the game is delivered to the targetdevice's persistent cache seamlessly in the background from the cloud.Partials can advantageously be delivered in encrypted form in order toenhance DRM and license control.

As the rendering is done locally, there is no network latency tointerfere with user control response time, and the resolution ofgameplay is independent from network connection speed. Additionally,games can be enjoyed with the full range of available peripherals.

Cloudpaging allows remote management of an application memory, such agames library, on a user's target device. A cloud server selects andpushes one or more Partials over the network onto the user's targetdevice without the user having to request or otherwise select thecorresponding game. The Partial (and corresponding game) can be selectedfor the user based on, for example, heuristics of a user's preferences,such as the user's gaming history. The user can be encouraged to trialany one or more of these pushed Partials, with or without purchase,rental or other payment condition, and can jump straight into any of thecorresponding games instantly with no network buffering delay. Use ofPartials previously pushed onto the user's target device can cut theuser's “time-to-play” to nearly zero, thus satisfying the gamer's desirefor instant gratification.

By limiting the memory footprint of Partials in a user's gaming library,games available for a user's immediate and convenient consumption can begreatly expanded, potentially by 10×, 20× or more. The user does notneed to be aware of which games (if any) are fully cached on theirtarget device, which games (if any) are only Partials, and which games(if any) are in a transitory state between the two.

Downloadable content (“DLC”) can also be pushed to the user's targetdevice. Depending on system configuration, the user can even purchaseDLC simply by accessing content corresponding to the DLC module, thusseamlessly removing the interruption of DLC purchase from the gameexperience.

Using Application Jukebox, the game is not installed on the targetdevice, but instead runs virtualized at near native speed in a sandbox,isolated from the target device's operating system and other unrelatedprocesses. This means low-friction convenient gaming with noinstallation time delays or resource conflicts. Process isolation alsoprovides a secure environment for license control and prevention ofunauthorized modification of the game experience (“hacking”); preventinghacking is particularly advantageous in an interactive multiplayer gameenvironment, where unfair advantages can frustrate and drive awayotherwise satisfied users.

With Application Jukebox, cloud-managed Digital Rights Management (DRM)and encrypted local storage enforce licensing policies, even when gamesare played offline; if a user exceeds his or her allocated offlinelicense duration, the encrypted game is locked until the license isrenewed via interaction with the cloud server. An Application Jukeboxcloud server suite can control, manage, analyze and revoke applicationlicensing, even on a minute-by-minute basis.

Application Streaming in Cloud Gaming

A cloud based server delivering computer game software in parts to atarget device, such as by application streaming, has a number ofadvantages.

A target device may be a target rendering device or a target proxydevice. A target rendering device can be, for example, a PC,minicomputer, mainframe computer, console, smart TV, tablet, smartphone, programmable consumer electronics or distributed computingenvironments where applications are run and rendered on remoteprocessing devices that are linked through a communications network. Atarget proxy device can be, for example, a network connected computerreadable storage device, such as a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) drivecomprising a hard disk and a file server. Such a target proxy deviceadvantageously is connected, either directly or via one or more otherdevices, mediums or networks, to one or more target rendering devices inorder to deliver the rendered gaming experience to a user.

The advantages of delivering game software in parts, such as byapplication streaming, from a cloud server to, eventually, a targetrendering device in a reliable, fault tolerant manner using a solutionsuch as Application Jukebox include:

-   -   1. A minimum portion of a game can be delivered to a target        rendering device to cut the “time-to-play” and reduce friction        to the user. This is a key advantage when compared to full game        downloads. The remainder of a game can be delivered to the        target rendering device concurrently in the background while it        is running on said device.    -   2. Delivering in parts, such as by application streaming, of        game software often requires less minimum bandwidth than current        Cloud Rendered Gaming, which has to continuously deliver        rendered images from remote edge servers.    -   3. As games are eventually rendered locally on a target        rendering device, the game can perform at native speeds without        the latency associated with current Cloud Rendered Gaming. An        important further advantage of Application Jukebox and local        rendering is that an expensive investment for an edge server        with a GPU is not required as the entire rendering is performed        locally on one or more target rendering devices    -   4. Once a sufficient portion of a game has been delivered to a        target device, offline gameplay without a continuing data        network connection to the server is possible, unlike with        current Cloud Rendered Gaming.

In a preferred embodiment, Application Jukebox running on a cloud serverserves one or more virtualized applications to a target device over adata network. A data network can be, for example, the Internet, awireless or Ethernet Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network(WAN).

FIG. 15 shows an example of a hardware arrangement for cloudpaging gamesto a single target device. An AJ cloud (1500) pushes Partials of games,advantageously without requiring any request, command, direct input orother indication of desire by a user, over a network (WAN) to a targetrendering device (1510), which is connected to a display (1520), whichmay be visual, aural, haptic, or of any other form allowingcommunication to a user, and also connected to a controller (1530),which may be a game controller, mouse and/or keyboard, or any other formallowing input from a user.

In some embodiments, a target rendering device can be a low cost console(‘micro-console’). Micro-consoles may attain Xbox 360-equivalent orgreater performance. Such micro-consoles may be able to render 3Dstereoscopic 720 p HD graphics performance directly to a TV whileconsuming relatively low power. The performance trend may furthercontinue to reach full 3D stereoscopic 1080 p HD. A micro-console orconsole's functionality can be partially or completely integrated into asmart TV.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a hardware arrangement for cloudpaging gamesto a target device. An AJ cloud pushes Partials of games over a network(WAN) to a target rendering device, e.g., a micro-console which isconnected over an HDMI connection, a network (LAN) with a very shortping time or another fast communications connection to a user's displaysuch as a TV, with a controller such as a gamepad connected (directly orindirectly) to the LAN to allow user input.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a cloud server (1700) that serves games to aPC (1710), in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 18 shows an example of cloudpaging games to a game station. A gamepusher controls software storage in the cloud to push Partials (or more)of games to a memory connected to at least one game station. The gamepusher also, directly or indirectly, instructs the memory to accept thePartials (or more) from the software storage. Advantageously, thememory, and/or the connection between the memory and the game station,is disposed so that signals take a very brief time to travel between thememory and the game station. When a game is selected for play on thegame station, if not all pages (or other software components) in theselected game are in the memory (or otherwise immediately available forexecution by the game system), the game station (or, optionally, thememory) signals the game pusher to cause some or all of the remainingpages (or other software components) of the selected game to be streamedto the memory from the software storage during game play. The gamepusher and/or the memory can also be configured so that the game pushercan instruct the memory to delete entire games, Partials, pages ofgames, and/or game components.

A license manager can be a component of the game pusher or may be aseparate set of resources. For games with license control, the gamepusher controls the license manager to allocate a license for aparticular game to the game station on an appropriate event, e.g., onpurchase or rental payment for the particular game from the game stationor from a corresponding user account.

A display and a game controller are also connected to the game station.The game station can output content in a manner perceptible to a user onthe display (e.g., video, aural or haptic output), and can accept inputcontrol (e.g., from a user) on a game controller (e.g., a mouse andkeyboard combination, or a proprietary game controller). The gamecontroller and display can optionally be integrated together.

The game station and/or the memory can be configured to send usage orpurchase information to the game pusher for the purpose of, for example,improving predictive gaming for the game station or (or in addition) forother game stations served by the game pusher.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a software application execution environmentwith respect to a target device Game Station 1900 and a Game Pusher1950. A Player Agent 1910 is employed to modify the Game Stationenvironment to be able to execute a Software Application 1905 withoutinstalling it. In particular, the Player Agent 1910 configures a FileSystem Hook (See reference numeral 1920 to intercept file system callsfrom the Operating System (See reference numeral 1915. The File SystemHook 1920 augments a Client File System Memory (See reference numeral1935 with a file system overlay that includes a Remote File SystemMemory 1930, and provides the Operating System 1915 with access (throughthe File System Hook) to the result. This allows the SoftwareApplication 1905 to be executed correctly without installation.

More specifically, a chain of File System Hooks is interposed betweenthe Operating System 1915 and the Client File System Memory 1935. TheFile System Hooks take control of the file system calls. When called,the File System Hooks can perform one of four operations. First, theFile System Hook can ignore the call and chain onto the next File SystemHook in the hook chain. Second, the File System Hook can process thecall and return the results directly to the Operating System 1915.Third, the File System Hook can change the call or make multiple callsto the Client File System Memory 1935 directly, and then return theresults to the Operating System 1915. Lastly, the File System Hook cancall down the hook chain and perform additional processing on the wayback.

The Player Agent 1910 informs the File System Hook 1920 via a processdatabase about the executing Software Application 1905 using the processidentification assigned by the Operating System 1915. The Player Agent1910 also informs the File System Hook 1920 about a token file whichcontains the file system paths and files (i.e. the file system overlay,which is essentially a private file system, since the File System Hook1920 will only allow the Software Application 1905 to see it) throughwhich files or pages of the Software Application can be accessed andwhich may include references to the Remote File System Memory 1930. Insome embodiments, this configuration of the File System Hook 1920 isimplemented by the Player Agent 1910 modifying the process database towhich both the Player Agent 1910 and the File System Hook 1920 haveaccess. The File System Hook 1920 executes based on the contents of theprocess database.

The process database can be modified so that the File System Hook 1920recognizes file system access requests from the Software Application1905 to access information and file and directory structure in theoverlay, and to (indirectly) access data from the Remote File SystemMemory 1930. For example, the File System Hook 1920 can be configured toaccess the Remote File System Memory 1930 (which holds files or portionsof files containing data and program instructions, including, generally,a copy of the Software Application 1905) on behalf of the SoftwareApplication 1905 by a network file system driver via a data network.

Because the File System Hook 1920 is configured to grant visibilityof/access to the file system overlay (as contained in the token file)only to the Software Application 1905 (more specifically, only to aprocess having the process ID of the Software Application 1905), otherprograms attempting to see information in the overlay will not be ableto do so via the File System Hook 1920. For example, if a user attemptsto use a different (e.g., conventionally installed) software applicationprogram to view the directory structure of the Game Station 1900, a filesystem call corresponding to the request will be generated by theOperating System 1915. However, because the File System Hook 1920 is notconfigured to grant visibility of the overlay other than to the SoftwareApplication 1905, the file system call will be passed by the File SystemHook 1920 to the Client File System Memory 1935, which will return aview of the Game Station directory without the overlay information.

A Pusher Agent 1945 is also employed to push portions of the SoftwareApplication 1905 contained in the Remote File System Memory 1930 ontothe Client File System Memory 1935 using information in a PreferenceDatabase 1965. The Preference Database 1965 can be used by the PusherAgent 1945 to decide whether a particular Software Application 1905which is not resident in the Client File System Memory 1935 would bedesirable to (user(s) of) a particular Game Station 1900. Informationfrom the Player Agent 1910, such as the current usage statistics of theClient File System 1935, can also be used in making this decision. If aparticular Software Application 1905 is deemed desirable, the PusherAgent 1945 pushes a token for the Software Application 1905 to thePlayer Agent 1910 and pushes an instruction to copy an immediatelyexecutable portion of the Software Application 1905 from the Remote FileSystem Memory 1930 to the Client File System Memory 1935. Subsequent tothe completion of this step, the Software Application 1905 can beimmediately launched without requiring file system calls to the RemoteFile System Memory 1930 (file system calls to the Client File SystemMemory 1935 will generally be sufficient) for content corresponding tothe immediately executable portion. Subsequent continued usage of theSoftware Application 1905 beyond the immediately executable portion canrequire the File System Hook 1920 to route calls to the Remote FileSystem Memory 1930 and/or cause additional pages of the SoftwareApplication 1905 to be streamed to the Client File System Memory 1935.

A Display 1955 and Game Controller 1960 connected to the OperatingSystem 1915 of the Game Station 1900 are used to enable the SoftwareApplication 1905 to be respectively displayed to and controlled by theuser of the Game Station 1900.

By proceeding as described above, the File System Hook “mediates”execution of the Software Application. In general, the actions taken byan agent interposed between an operating system (or other agentcontrolling access to and allocation of hardware and/or softwareresources) and the hardware and/or resources corresponding to saidoperating system, where said actions effect virtualized execution of asoftware application using at least some of said resources, is definedherein as “mediating” execution of said software application.

In some embodiments, the Game Station can start the process of obtaininga Partial by pulling a Partial from the Game Pusher. This can be donewithout requiring user input. For example, if the Client File SystemMemory has sufficient space, the Player Agent can periodically checkwith the Game Pusher for additional Partials. These Partials can befiltered using selection heuristics available to the Player Agent, suchas the application contents of a local applications library, or using aPreference Database (accessed remotely) in the cloud. The Player Agentthen pulls one or more Partials that passed the filtration step into theClient File System Memory from a Remote File System Memory.

In some embodiments, the Game Pusher can push Partials in combinationwith the Game Station pulling partials.

Application Streaming Proxy Servers

In some embodiments, a target device serves an application, or portionof an application, it has received from a cloud server or a secondtarget device, to another target device over a data network.

FIG. 20 shows an example of a target proxy device, such as a NAS drive(2010), serving games to multiple target rendering devices, such as PCs(2020), over a LAN, in accordance with some embodiments. Suchembodiments are suited to environments such as Internet Cafes. Internetcafes may want to offer a large selection of games without having toinstall and upgrade them repeatedly on every PC (or other target device)in their network, and without having to stream them from the cloud forevery PC. Instead, games can be delivered once from the cloud to atarget proxy device, and subsequently delivered within the localnetwork.

In some embodiments, even though at least a portion of applicationdelivery is via an intermediary target device, license management isregulated from an Application Jukebox license service running on a cloudserver. All end target devices continue to subscribe to licenses from anAJ cloud using a normal Application Jukebox protocol.

In some embodiments, the intermediary target device has the authority toissue licenses, using, for example, the system described in U.S. patentapplication 61/505,826.

In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 20, the cloud server (100) is notaware of the target proxy device (2010). The cloud server pushes aPartial to the target rendering device (2020) in response to, forexample, cloud based selection heuristics, or a request from the targetrendering device (2020), or any combination of heuristics and request.The target proxy device (2010) intercepts the Partial from the cloudserver (2000) and stores a local copy. The target proxy device can nowserve the Partial to any connected target devices in the LAN. Thismethod may be advantageous in scenarios where target rendering devices(2020) in a LAN are likely to require the same Partials, either because,for example, the same user operates multiple target devices, or theusers of each target device have similar selection heuristics, or anycombination. In another embodiment, a target rendering device (2020)copies all Partials it has obtained from a cloud server (2000) to allconnected target proxy devices (2010) for the same aim.

Application Streaming Using Peer-to-Peer

FIG. 21 shows an example of a PC (2100) serving games to another PC(2110) over a WAN using peer-to-peer (“P2P”) technology, in accordancewith some embodiments. In embodiments using an intermediate target proxydevice, P2P, or a combination, a target device may need to perform anetwork discovery task to find available application sources.

In some embodiments, the target device pings the cloud server to see ifit is accessible.

In some embodiments, the client software installed on a target devicearrives coded with the locations of application sources.

FIG. 22 shows an example of serving applications using P2P technology,in accordance with some embodiments. When a user installs theApplication Jukebox client on a target device (2210), it comes codedwith a list of cloud server addresses. Every time the target device(2210) wishes to launch an application, it registers with one of thecloud servers (2200), obtains a license, and sends a request forapplication pages. The cloud server (2200), which may communicate withother cloud servers, in turn connects to a number of target devices(2210), which in turn connect to even more target devices. The requestis propagated through the network until either the correct set of pagesis located, or until the request has been forwarded more than athreshold number of levels. If the correct set of pages is found, it istransferred directly using HTTP from the owner target device (2210) tothe requestor target device (2210), and does not go through the cloudserver (2200). If the correct set of pages is not found, the cloudserver (2200) supplies them directly to the requestor target device(2210).

FIG. 23 shows an example of serving applications using P2P technology,in accordance with some embodiments. This embodiment serves applicationsthat do not use license protection using P2P technology, without theneed for a cloud server. When a user installs the Application Jukeboxclient on a target device (2300), it comes coded with a list of“super-node” target device addresses. Every time the requesting targetdevice (2300) wishes to launch an application, it registers with one ofthe super-node target devices (2300), and sends a request forapplication pages. The super-node target device (2300), which maycommunicate with other super-node target devices, in turn connects to anumber of regular target devices (2300), which in turn connect to evenmore target devices. The request is propagated through the network untileither the correct set of pages is located, or until the request hasbeen forwarded more than a threshold number of levels. If the correctset of pages is found, it is transferred directly using HTTP from theowner target device (2300) to the requestor target device (2300), anddoes not go through the super-node target device (2300). If the correctset of pages is not found, either the request for pages fails, or thepages can alternatively be delivered by cloudpaging from a cloud serveras shown in (for example) FIG. 17.

Automatic Library Populating

In some embodiments, the library of games or other applications on atarget device is automatically maintained by a cloud server.

In some embodiments, the cloud server chooses applications usingselection heuristics and pushes corresponding Partials to one or moretarget devices. Selection heuristics may favor, for example, the sequelto a game that is already in a user's library; a different episode orlevel of a previously purchased game of the user; games belonging to afranchise that the user has previously made purchases from; gamesbelonging to a specific game provider, publisher or developer; gamessimilar to those previously played, downloaded or purchased by the user;games suggested by information available from a user's social networkprofile; games suggested by a user's behavioral history on websites suchas shopping platforms; games recommended by other users; games selectedfor other users with similar preferences; or highly rated games.Selection heuristics may also be biased towards selection of games orother applications as paid or otherwise contracted for by a publisher,retailer, developer, or other third party.

Currently, while a user is shopping and browsing on a shopping portal,his or her movements and user initiated events are closely tracked. Forexample, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,337,127, one common approachcreates a log entry each time a user clicks through a displayedadvertisement. These events can be tracked through server-based programsand/or software executing on a user's target device. Such capturedinformation can be routed to a central database, where it is stored andanalyzed together with the user's profile, which can also includeinitial survey responses provided by the user during registration.

As described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,515,098 and 6,216,129, statisticalinformation from a user's events and/or profile can be compared tostatistical information collected from customers of particular productsto determine the applicability of the products to the user. Thistechnology (‘preference tracking’) can be used to, for example, proposegames or other applications that are similar or complementary to thosepreviously purchased, placed in a basket, placed in a favorites list, orbrowsed by a potential customer. In some embodiments, preferencetracking technology is used to automatically decide which set of one ormore Partials are pushed from a cloud server to a target device.

FIG. 24 shows an example of automatic library maintenance. A cloudserver continuously monitors the available storage space on a targetdevice (2400). If there is sufficient allocated memory available, thenthe cloud server chooses a game, with or without explicit request—or anyaction at all—by a user. The choice can be based on, for example,selection heuristics (2410). The cloud server initiates delivery of aPartial corresponding to the chosen game to the target device (2420).The delivered Partial is then integrated into the local library of thetarget device to appear as if the game is stored fully locally (2430).

FIG. 25 shows another example of automatic library maintenance. A cloudserver continuously monitors selection heuristics associated with a userand accordingly selects a new game Partial at an estimated optimumtiming (2500). The cloud server monitors available storage space on theuser's target device (2510). If there is sufficient allocated memoryavailable for the selected Partial, then the cloud server pushes theselected Partial onto the available space on the user's target device(2520), and integrates the pushed Partial into the user's library(2530).

If there is insufficient allocated memory available for the selectedPartial, the cloud server queries the number of games in the user'starget device's library (2540). If more than one game exists, theentirety or portion of the least recently used game is deleted from thetarget device to free memory space (2550). Once sufficient free space ismade available on the target device, the server proceeds with pushing(2520) and integrating (2530) the selected Partial into the user'starget device library. In some embodiments, only games older than agiven threshold duration can be automatically deleted in step (2550).

In some embodiments, the user is prompted for approval before anyserver-specified deletion takes place.

In some embodiments, different criteria are used to determine which gamecan be deleted. Deletion criteria can include, for example, the amountof memory used by a game; whether the game as resident in memory is aPartial, full game, or in-between; the duration since the game was firstadded to the library; the duration since last launch of the game; thenumber of times the game has been played; and whether the game has beensuperseded by a newer sequel or version.

In some embodiments, automatic library maintenance is accomplished usingdevice specific depositories in the cloud. A depository is a virtualenvironment instantiated in the cloud and representing an individualtarget device. The depository, which is accessible by the cloud server,can be populated with the same applications and Partials as its pairedtarget device. Advantageously, the contents of the depository arecontinuously made to replicate those of the target device. This can beachieved by, for example, replicating modifications to the target devicein the depository, or by replicating modifications to the depository inthe target device, or a combination of both. A combination replicationtechnique may involve, for example, replicating the latest modificationsin either environment in the other. Use of a depository enables a cloudserver to have continuous and fast access to the status of a targetdevice's application library.

In some embodiments, where a target device replicates a depository, thedepository is populated with a set of applications that, when deliveredin their entirety, would not fit in an allocated memory capacity of thepaired target device. For example, the depository library may bepopulated with all of a user's previously selected applications and/orapplications chosen using selection heuristics. Applications, orPartials of applications, may be pushed from a depository to a pairedtarget device.

In some embodiments, the most recently used applications from thedepository are kept on the paired target device in their entirety(enabling full offline access), and less recently used applications areresident only as a partial on the target device.

In some embodiments, an individual depository has a smaller memoryfootprint than its paired target device. For example, where a depositorycontains applications also contained by other depositories, duplicateapplications or Partials may be stored in a central repository, andlinks placed in the depositories pointing to the respective duplicateapplications on the central repository.

In some embodiments, automatic library maintenance is accomplished usingcloud depositories that are paired with individual users instead ofindividual target devices. For example, where a user may utilize morethan one target device, each of these target devices may pair with andreplicate applications, or Partials of applications, with a commondepository. In another embodiment, where a target device permitsmultiple users to access their own segregated user environments, eachuser environment may pair and replicate applications, or Partials ofapplications, with a different depository.

In some embodiments, a depository is used to assist applicationredelivery.

In some embodiments, a target proxy device performs automatic librarymaintenance, in addition to the automatic library maintenance performedin the cloud server.

FIG. 20 shows an example of a cloud server (2000) that can performautomatic library maintenance remotely for an NAS drive (2010) usingcombined selection heuristics of the group of users on target renderingdevices (2020). This step ensures, for example, that Partials of newgames that are likely to interest users within a home are available overthe home LAN. The NAS drive acts as the access point for the targetrendering devices (2020) to access applications on a day-to-day basis.The NAS drive (2010), in turn, concurrently performs automatic librarymaintenance for the locally connected target rendering devices (2020).If one of said target rendering devices has sufficient free allocatedmemory space, the NAS drive pushes one or more Partials onto the targetrendering device, with or without selection heuristics (i.e., with orwithout the benefit of preference tracking) of the user of said targetrendering device.

Episodic Content Delivery

In some embodiments, a game is served from the cloud server to a targetdevice on an “episode-by-episode” basis using Application Jukebox.Application Jukebox has the ability to run virtualized games not only inan isolated mode, but also in integrated, or partially integrated,modes. In integrated modes, layers within the virtualized game areallowed to communicate with other processes on the operating system.With enterprise software, this allows optional plug-ins to be streamedseparately to the main application, but still work together as if theyhad been streamed in one package. Similarly, for games, this allowsdifferent episodes, levels, entire games or other portion sizes ofcontent to be streamed independently. The core game engine only needs tobe delivered once, and episodes delivered at different times will fullyfunction with the engine.

Partials of subsequent episodes or of downloadable content (“DLC”) canbe chosen by the cloud server for pushing to a target device. DLCcomprising an expansion of a game (or Partial or other portion of thegame) already present on a target device can be integrated into the game(or Partial or other portion of the game) so that, during gameplay ofthe game, a portion of the content of the DLC corresponding to itsPartial can be played as context-appropriate within the game. A user maybe prompted for purchase (or other payment model or fulfillment ofrequirement for license application) of the DLC during gameplay of itscorresponding Partial (if appropriate). Alternatively, gameplay of aPartial corresponding to a DLC can automatically trigger payment basedon a user's payment information on file.

Other Features of Application Streaming of Games

In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 20, a target rendering device(2020) identifies a request for a new Partial in response to user input,such as completion of an episode of a game, an eCommerce store purchase,or the entry of new survey responses. The target device queries theavailable application sources for the Partial using a hierarchy definedby a weighting, which can be based on, for example, availability, pingtime and the current loading of the application source (how much loadthe application source is handling). In this case, the target renderingdevice (2020) will most likely first look for the Partial in the LANconnected NAS drive (2010), before falling back onto the (likely) slowerWAN connected cloud server (2000).

FIG. 26 shows an example of cloudpaging games. A user selects a game toplay on a target rendering device. The target rendering device executescorresponding game software, which can be a Partial, a Partial plus someadditional components (e.g., pages) or a complete game. If the gamecomprises additional components not currently resident in memory orotherwise quickly accessible by the target rendering device (the memorymay or may not be integrated into—or even physically near—the targetdevice), the target rendering device causes a signal to be sent to agame pusher requesting one or more of the non-resident additionalcomponents to be sent to the memory and/or target device. If the userand/or the target rendering device has license rights to the additionalcomponents, and if content corresponding to the additional componentscan be used during the current play session, then the game pusher causesthe additional components to be streamed to the target rendering device.While the selected game continues to be played, the target renderingdevice continues to request additional components that may be neededduring play that are not already being streamed or otherwise quicklyaccessible to the target rendering device. Requested additionalcomponents can include DLC or other add-ons or mods (user or officialgame modifications), or pages or Partials thereof.

FIG. 27 shows an example of a graphical user interface of a user'slibrary (2700) on a target device containing four games (2710)-(2740).Games (2710) and (2720) are Partials that have been pushed from a cloudserver to the user's target device and integrated into the user's locallibrary to encourage the user to run the Partials as demos for thecorresponding games. The Partials contain minimum pages required tolaunch the games, with any further required pages streamed on demandfrom the cloud server.

In some embodiments, licenses for Partial demos can be time-limited toenable the user to play for free for a predefined time period, afterwhich a payment transaction is required for further play. Games(2730)-(2740) are previously purchased or rented games, or games thatare available through an ongoing subscription service. Game (2730)comprises a Partial plus 50% of the remaining Body page segments,whereas game (2740) comprises the full game and can be played in itsentirety offline, if the corresponding license permits.

In some embodiments, Partials are added from a cloud server to a targetdevice in response to one or more requests made from the target deviceto the cloud server.

In some embodiments, the user of a target device may request a Partialof a game to demo the product.

Advantageously, in some embodiments, the contents of a Partial can beadapted to match characteristics of a target device. For example, targetdevices with slow network connections can have insufficient bandwidthfor on-demand cloudpaging to deliver application pages with acceptablespeed, in which case a game pusher can deliver a Partial that contains alarger portion of an application. A Partial can also be adapted inaccordance with allocated memory or other hardware capacity of thetarget device. For example, high resolution textures can not be includedin a Partial that is delivered to a target device with low memory. Highresolution textures also may not be included in a Partial that isdelivered to a target device with limited graphics capability. A Partialcan also be adapted in accordance with license characteristics. Forexample, if a given license only permits a game to be played (e.g., fordemo purposes) until the end of an introductory tutorial section, otherportions of the game beyond the tutorial may not need to be included ina corresponding Partial.

In some embodiments, player software is required on the target device tostream virtualized games, where the streaming client is obtained bymeans of a digital download, and said streaming client arrives bundledwith one ore more Partials to the target device.

In some embodiments, a cloud server scans a target device, detectsexisting installed games, and automatically delivers Partials of saidgames to the target device with corresponding license keys.

In some embodiments, delivery of Partials of existing installed gamesoccurs in response to user commands.

In some embodiments, Partials are broadcast to one or more targetdevices using one or more multicast packets.

Software-based gaming is an enormous global market. This market isdriven heavily by instant gratification for the customers. The core setof players are predominantly (approximately) 12-35 year old males.Purchases are often impulsive.

Flagship (“AAA”) game titles are advertised months—or even years—inadvance, at trade shows and in online trade publications, to build upfavorable advance notices. AAA title release week sales numbers areclosely watched precisely because electronic gaming, regardless ofplatform, is so oriented towards instant gratification and the builduptowards a must-have purchase. Just as importantly for smaller-budget(often cheaper) titles, the ability to provide gamers a true impulsepurchase that can be immediately played is critical to generatingword-of-mouth leading to a wider audience. Gamers are, by the quickfire,rapid-reward nature of the pastime, an impatient group with a shortattention span, and the faster that software can be loaded to a playablestate on a gaming device, the more likely a gamer is to still feel likeplaying when the game is ready. The numerous inventions disclosedherein, and their various combinations, make the loading time to aplayable state on gaming devices effectively zero. This providesenormous advantages for software makers generally, and most especiallyfor gaming software. Gaming software, in this respect, is notablydifferent from other software.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for providing a remote gaming service, comprising theactions of: when a user selects a particular game from available gameson a game station, a) executing software corresponding to saidparticular game, said particular game being initially playable withoutdownload immediately following said selecting; and if said particulargame comprises additional components not immediately playable withoutdownload, b) streaming over a network to said game station at least oneof said additional components, said streaming beginningcontemporaneously with and continuing at least partially concurrentlywith said executing.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for managing remote gaming, comprising the actionsof: using a game pusher to push software over a network to a gamestation, said software corresponding to games chosen to be available forplay on said game station, said software being initially playablewithout download immediately after selection using said game station,said game station being physically separated from said game pusher; andwhen a user selects a particular game for play, if said particular gamerequires additional components to provide aspects of said particulargame available to a user upon selection but said additional componentsare not immediately playable without download, using said game pusher tocontrol streaming to said game station of said additional components,said streaming beginning contemporaneously with said selection andcontinuing at least partially concurrently with said play.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A remote game push control system, comprising: a) a pluralityof software-implemented games, at least one of said games comprising animmediately initially playable portion and at least one additionalcomponent separately transmissible from said portion, said componentsbeing integral to extended play of corresponding ones of said games; andb) a game pusher which: pushes portions of at least one of said gamesover a network to a game playing station, said portions of gamesincluding at least said immediately initially playable portions, saidgame playing station being physically separated from said game pusher;when a particular game is selected to be played on said game playingstation, if respective components corresponding to said particular gameare not immediately playable without download, streams at least one ofsaid respective components to said game playing station.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A game playing system, comprising: a) at least one game inputunit and at least one display; b) a stored list of games which receives,without instruction from a user, at least immediately initially playableportions of games in said list of games over a network from a gamepusher, said list of games not being resident in game pusher; and c) agame player station, which: when a particular game is selected from saidlist of games, playably executes said immediately initially playableportion of said particular game from said list of games; if saidparticular game is not present in said list of games as a complete game,signals said game pusher and receives from said game pusher at least oneadditional component of said particular game into said list of games;interactively applies inputs from said game input unit to saidparticular game; sends output from said particular game to said display.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for locally managing cloud gaming where at least oneuser is playing on a game station, comprising: intercepting, by a localmanager, local and remote file system calls with respect to availablegames on the game station, said local manager being operativelyinterposed between a file system and an operating system of said gamestation, said available games being immediately initially playable onthe game station; selectively allowing interaction between local andremote file system calls and an execution state or a memory state ofsaid available game; when the user selects a particular available gamefor play, executing, by said local manager, software corresponding tosaid particular game, said particular game being initially playableimmediately following said selecting; if said particular game comprisesadditional components not resident in a memory of said game station atsaid time, transmitting, by said local manager, information relating tothe user's activity over a network to a game pusher; and receiving fromsaid game pusher, by said local manager, streamed additional componentsof said particular game, said streaming beginning contemporaneously withand continuing at least partially concurrently with said executing.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A system for locally managing cloud gaming on at least onegame station, comprising: a plurality of games, at least one of saidgames comprising an immediately initially playable portion and at leastone additional component separately transmissible from said portion,said components being integral to extended play of corresponding ones ofsaid games; and a local manager, said local manager operativelyinterposed between a file system and an operating system of the gamestation, which: intercepts local and remote file system calls withrespect to at least one available game on the game station; selectivelyallows interaction between local and remote file system calls and anexecution state or a memory state of said available game; when a userselects a particular available game for play on the game station,mediates execution of software corresponding to said particularavailable game, said particular available game being initially playableimmediately following said selecting; if respective additionalcomponents corresponding to said available game are not present in saidmemory, transmits a signal to a game streamer and receives from saidgame streamer a stream comprising at least one of said respectiveadditional components.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for providing a remote gaming service, comprising theactions of: a) downloading over a network to a game station, withoutexplicit user designation, at least an initially immediately playableportion of at least one game, said game being chosen at least partiallyin dependence on at least some of: usage information of said gamestation, usage heuristics of said game station, current and prioramounts of storage used of said game station, and available bandwidth;when a user selects a particular game from said downloaded games, b)executing software corresponding to said particular game and resident insaid game station at a time of said selection, said particular gamebeing initially playable immediately following said selecting; and ifsaid particular game comprises additional components not resident insaid game station at said time, c) streaming over a network to said gamestation at least one of said additional components, said streamingbeginning contemporaneously with and continuing at least partiallyconcurrently with said executing.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A game playing system, comprising: a) at least one game inputunit and at least one display; b) software comprising at leastimmediately initially playable portions of at least one game downloadedover a network, without explicit user designation, from a game supplier,said software not being resident in said game supplier, said game beingchosen at least partially in dependence on at least some of: usageinformation of said game station, usage heuristics of said game station,current and prior amounts of storage used of said game station, andavailable bandwidth; c) a game player station, connected to execute saidsoftware, which: when a particular game is selected from said software,playably executes from said software said immediately initially playableportion of said particular game; if said particular game is not presentin said software as a complete game, signals said game supplier andreceives from said game supplier at least one additional component ofsaid particular game into said software; interactively applies inputsfrom said game controller to said particular game; and sends output fromsaid game to said display.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for providing a remote gaming service, comprising theactions of: a) collecting user preference data using a game station anda push controller, said user preference data comprising at least someof: usage information of said game station, usage heuristics of saidgame station, current and prior amounts of storage used of said gamestation, and available bandwidth; b) downloading by said game stationfrom said push controller or pushing by said push controller to saidgame station, without explicit user designation, at least an initiallyimmediately playable portion of at least one game, said game beingchosen at least partially in dependence on said user preference data;when a user selects a particular game from said downloaded or pushedgames, c) executing software corresponding to said particular game; andif said particular game comprises additional components not immediatelyavailable for execution by said game station without downloading, d)streaming over a network to said game station at least one of saidadditional components, said streaming beginning contemporaneously withand continuing at least partially concurrently with said executing.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for providing a remote gaming service proxy,comprising the actions of: using an appfeeder, supplying software over anetwork to a proxy game pusher, said software corresponding to gameschosen to be available for pushing on said proxy game pusher, saidsoftware comprising at least immediately initially playable portions ofsaid games, said proxy game pusher being physically separated from saidappfeeder; pushing software over a network, directed by said proxy gamepusher, to a game station, said software corresponding to games chosento be available for play on said game station, said software beinginitially playable without download immediately after selection usingsaid game station; and streaming to said game station additionalcomponents of a particular game selected for play using said gamestation, if said particular game requires said additional components toprovide aspects of said particular game available to a user uponselection and said additional components are not immediately playablewithout download, said additional components being streamed by saidproxy game pusher if resident in said proxy game pusher, and caused tobe streamed by said appfeeder if said additional components are notresident in said proxy game pusher, said streaming by said proxy gamepusher or caused by said game pusher beginning contemporaneously withsaid selection and continuing at least partially concurrently with saidplay.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A system for managing application distribution, comprising:one or more global appfeeders, ones of said global appfeederscontrolling at least some of application downloading and permissionallocation to ones of at least one group pagefeeders; and said grouppagefeeders controlling at least some of application pagefeeding andpermission allocation to ones of a plurality of clients.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for managing application distribution, comprising: a)controlling, using one or more global appfeeders, at least some ofapplication downloading and permission allocation to ones of one or moregroup pagefeeders; and b) controlling, using said group pagefeeders, atleast some of application pagefeeding and permission allocation to onesof a plurality of clients.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A system for managing license service failover in anapplication distribution network, comprising: one or more globalappfeeders, ones of said global appfeeders controlling at least some ofapplication downloading and permission allocation to ones of at leastone group pagefeeders; ones of said group pagefeeders controlling atleast some of application pagefeeding and permission allocation to onesof a plurality of clients; and at least one sync agent communicatingpermission allocation information among group pagefeeders; wherein, whencommunications between a particular client and a particular grouppagefeeder currently controlling at least some application pagefeedingor allocating permissions to said particular client fail, at least oneof any available communicating group pagefeeders assumes control of atleast some corresponding application pagefeeding and permissionallocation for said particular client.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for managing license service failover in anapplication distribution network, comprising: a) controlling, using atleast one global appfeeder, at least some of application downloading andpermission allocation to ones of a at least one group pagefeeders; b)controlling, using ones of said group pagefeeders, at least some ofapplication pagefeeding and permission allocation to ones of a pluralityof clients; and c) communicating permission allocation information,using at least one sync agent, among group pagefeeders; wherein, whencommunications between a particular client and a particular grouppagefeeder currently controlling at least some application pagefeedingor allocating permissions to said particular client fail, at least oneof any available communicating group pagefeeders assumes control of atleast some corresponding application pagefeeding and permissionallocation for said particular client.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A system for managing application distribution, comprising: atleast one global appfeeder, ones of said global appfeeders controllingat least some of application pagefeeding and permission allocation toones of a plurality of group pagefeeders; and ones of said grouppagefeeders controlling at least some of application pagefeeding andpermission allocation to ones of a plurality of clients; wherein atleast some particular applications are virtualized before pagefeeding tosaid group pagefeeders, and permissions are applied to correspondingparticular applications after pagefeeding of said correspondingparticular applications to said group pagefeeders.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for managing application distribution, comprising: a)controlling, using at least one global pagefeeder, at least some ofapplication pagefeeding and permission allocation to ones of a pluralityof group pagefeeders; and b) controlling, using ones of said grouppagefeeders, at least some of application pagefeeding and permissionallocation to ones of a plurality of clients; wherein at least someparticular applications are virtualized before pagefeeding to said grouppagefeeders, and permissions are applied to corresponding particularapplications after pagefeeding of said corresponding particularapplications to said group pagefeeders.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: Methods and systems for remotely provisioning immediatelyexecutable games with license control in secure environments.Immediately initially executable portions of games are pushed onto userdesktops, and when games are selected for play, additional components ofselected games are streamed to said desktops.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: Methods and systems for remotely provisioning immediatelyexecutable applications with license control in secure environments.Immediately initially executable portions of applications are pushedonto user desktops, and when applications are selected for use,additional components of selected applications are streamed to saiddesktops.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: Methods and systems for remotely provisioning applicationsfrom the cloud in secure environments with robust license controlfailover options using a hierarchical server topology. Cloud-basedservers provide applications and licenses to an organization's localservers, which in turn serve applications and licenses to end userdevices. By synchronizing information including license and applicationprovision information among the local and cloud-based servers, anorganization's local servers can continue to serve applications andlicenses when one or more of the organization's local servers fail.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for providing a remote software service, comprisingthe actions of: a) selecting a particular application from availableapplications on an application station; b) executing softwarecorresponding to said particular application, said particularapplication being initially executable without download immediatelyfollowing said selecting; and, if said particular application comprisesadditional components not immediately playable without download, c)streaming over a network to said memory at least one of said additionalcomponents, said streaming beginning contemporaneously with andcontinuing at least partially concurrently with said executing.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for remote application management, comprising theactions of: pushing software over a network, directed by an applicationpusher, to an application station, said software corresponding toapplications chosen to be available for play on said applicationstation, said software being initially playable without downloadimmediately after selection using said application station, saidapplication station being physically separated from said applicationpusher; and streaming to said application station from said applicationpusher additional components of a particular application selected forexecution using said application station, if said particular applicationrequires said additional components to provide aspects of saidparticular application available to a user upon selection but saidadditional components are not immediately executable without download,said streaming beginning contemporaneously with said selection andcontinuing at least partially concurrently with said execution.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A method for managing remote gaming, comprising the actionsof: a) using one or more global appfeeders to control at least some ofgame downloading and permission allocation to ones of one or more gamepushers; b) using said game pushers to push software over a network to agame station, said software corresponding to games chosen to beavailable for play on said game station, said software being initiallyplayable without download immediately after selection using said gamestation, said game station being physically separated from said gamepusher; and when a user selects a particular game for play, if saidparticular game requires additional components to provide aspects ofsaid particular game available to a user upon selection but saidadditional components are not immediately playable without download, c)using said game pushers to control play of said particular game based onan allocation state and parameters of corresponding permissions; and d)using said game pushers to control pagefeeding to said game station ofsaid additional components, said pagefeeding beginning, if allowed byrespective permissions, contemporaneously with said selection andcontinuing at least partially concurrently with said play.

According to some but not necessarily all embodiments, there isprovided: A remote game push control system, comprising: a) a pluralityof software-implemented games, at least one of said games comprising animmediately initially playable portion and at least one additionalcomponent separately transmissible from said portion, said componentsbeing integral to extended play of corresponding ones of said games; andb) one or more global appfeeders, ones of said global appfeederscontrolling at least some of game downloading and permission allocationto ones of one or more game pushers; and c) said game pushers, which:push portions of at least one of said games over a network to a gameplaying station, said portions of games including at least saidimmediately initially playable portions, said game playing station beingphysically separated from said game pushers; when a particular game isselected to be played on said game playing station, control play of saidparticular game based on an allocation state and parameters ofcorresponding permissions, and if respective components corresponding tosaid particular game are not immediately playable without download, andif allowed by respective permissions, pagefeed at least one of saidrespective components to said game playing station.

Modifications and Variations

As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, the innovativeconcepts described in the present application can be modified and variedover a tremendous range of applications, and accordingly the scope ofpatented subject matter is not limited by any of the specific exemplaryteachings given. It is intended to embrace all such alternatives,modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scopeof the appended claims.

In some embodiments, functions corresponding to Application Jukeboxservices can be divided up into a different number or differentarrangement of services.

In some embodiments, license types can be divided into a differentnumber or different arrangement of permission types.

In some embodiments, one or more of the local boxes or target devices ina local network can be preloaded with a list of application sources.

In some embodiments, local boxes or target devices can supplement aresident list of application sources with any additional applicationsources known by ADN components with which the local boxes or targetdevices communicate.

In some embodiments, a local box (or local boxes) can be assigned to asthe primary local box of a group of users, group of target devices, or amix.

In some embodiments, users and/or target devices can be dynamicallyallocated to local boxes on connection to the local network.

In some embodiments, the ADN cloud can not be included in the set ofdevices synchronized by a sync agent.

In some embodiments, when one or more local boxes is offline, the numberof license seats allocated for provisioning by at least some of theremaining local boxes is less than the total number of license that wereavailable for provisioning immediately prior to loss of communicationsdivided by the number of remaining local boxes.

In some embodiments, local portal functions use different processingresources from at least some other local box functions, so that a localbox being under heavy load or offline does not necessarily mean that acorresponding local portal is heavily loaded or offline.

In some embodiments, communication among local boxes may not betransitive.

In some embodiments, not all local boxes that communicate with eachother may be able to serve all target devices served by each other localbox.

In some embodiments, an ADN local network can be served by multiple ADNclouds.

In some embodiments corresponding to FIG. 19, the network file systemdriver can instead be a CD-ROM file system driver (or otherremovable-memory driver) that accesses files or portions of files from aCD-ROM drive (or other removable memory device) that is connectedlocally to the client terminal, where the File System Hook 1920 isconfigured to retrieve data on behalf of the Software Application 1905from the CD-ROM file system driver.

In some embodiments, applications available from local boxes within anorganization can be specified by a vendor or vendor's agent.

Some present embodiments have been described in connection with computergames. In general, inventions disclosed herein can be applied to othersoftware applications, as well.

Some present embodiments have been described in connection withWindows-type operating systems. In general, inventions disclosed hereincan be applied to other operating systems (e.g., operating systems thatdo not use registry keys), as well.

Some present embodiments have been described in connection withApplication Jukebox. In general, serving resources with functionalitysimilar to the functionality of Application Jukebox discussed incorresponding embodiments can be employed instead of ApplicationJukebox.

In some embodiments, a target device can comprise any device orarrangement of devices on which a user can execute interactiveapplications.

In some embodiments, DRM can be built into hardware.

In some embodiments, a target rendering device can comprise any deviceor arrangement of devices on which content can be rendered and a usercan execute interactive applications.

In some embodiments, a target rendering device can comprise any deviceor arrangement of devices which can act as a proxy server.

In some embodiments, a local box can comprise any arrangement ofresources performing the functions described herein with respect tolocal boxes. For example, such functions can executed by one or morephysical devices. Local box functions of a single local box can beexecuted consistently by the same physical device(s), or one or morefunctions of a local box can be executed by different device(s) atdifferent times. Also, some or all local box functions of multiple localboxes can be executed by a single device.

In some embodiments, applications are downloaded from an ADN cloud tolocal boxes without streaming.

In some embodiments, a local network can use more than one sync agent.

In some embodiments, protocols other than SOAP/XML based API calls canbe used for synchronization.

In some embodiments, a target device can not be able even to see the ADNcloud.

In some embodiments, a target device is any arrangement of resourcesthat can execute software applications and interact with a user.

In some embodiments, data in addition to required data can be deliveredto a target device.

In some embodiments, required data can be prioritized for delivery toaccelerate availability of particular functionality at a destinationtarget device.

In some embodiments, an application source can not contain the whole ofan application, and can instead contain only a portion of an applicationcorresponding to some functions of the application.

In some embodiments, a Partial can be larger or smaller than 5-10% of anapplication. For example, a Partial can be larger for small applicationsor applications requiring a large amount of data to be cached forinitial execution.

In some embodiments, Partials can contain more than the minimum requiredpages for initial execution of a game or other application.

In some embodiments, applications can be accessed through portalsoftware or other middleware.

In some embodiments, ones or groups of end users or target devices arerestricted to accessing particular ones of the local boxes within arespective local network.

In some embodiments, numbers and details of failover levels can bevaried as appropriate with respect to, and based on (for example), aparticular ADN cloud's and/or a particular organization's hardware andsoftware details, network topology, or network management requirements.

In some embodiments, some or all storage information can not bedisplayed to a user of the target device. For example, memory used andwhether or not the complete software—or a Partial—is resident in memorycan be hidden from a user.

In some embodiments, multiple corresponding game pushers can be capableof pushing Partials (or more) and streaming Bodies onto a given gamestation.

In some embodiments, a given game pusher can have multiple correspondinggame stations that it is capable of pushing Partials (or more) andstreaming Bodies onto.

In some embodiments, a game station can have multiple displays and/ormultiple controllers attached.

In some embodiments, a pusher can be used to manage Partials forportable environments.

In some embodiments, where there are multiple target devices availablein a given location or otherwise disposed for convenient user access,Partials can be managed so that different target devices can fit orpartially accommodate different sets of potential user roaming profiles.

In some embodiments, a game station and/or game station memory can alsoplay and/or store games that are not virtualized and/or streamed.

In some embodiments, only games that have not been used within a definedperiod can be deleted from a target device by automatic librarymanagement.

In some embodiments, only games that have been played with less than adefined frequency can be deleted from a target device by automaticlibrary management.

In some embodiments, an automatic library management decision to deletea game from a target device can be made by a local box or other serverwith push or other write privileges over the target device, or by ADNclient software located on the target device.

In some embodiments, an application can begin execution with no pages ofthe application on the target device; e.g., the application can beselected for execution through a portal program, with applicationfunctions made available as corresponding pages are streamed to thetarget device.

In some embodiments, pages can be delivered when already present on atarget device, e.g., to repair an application error or as part of apatch.

In some embodiments, when a particular game is being played on a gamestation, streaming continues when play of the particular game concludesof pages of the particular game that are not resident on the gamestation. In some embodiments, when a particular game is being played ona game station, streaming ends when play of the particular gameconcludes of pages of the particular game that are not resident on thegame station.

Some present embodiments have been described in connection withorganizations. In general, inventions described herein with respect toorganizations can also be applied to any permanent or transient group oftarget devices or users.

None of the description in the present application should be read asimplying that any particular element, step, or function is an essentialelement which must be included in the claim scope: THE SCOPE OF PATENTEDSUBJECT MATTER IS DEFINED ONLY BY THE ALLOWED CLAIMS. Moreover, none ofthese claims are intended to invoke paragraph six of 35 USC section 112unless the exact words “means for” are followed by a participle.

Additional general background, which helps to show variations andimplementations, as well as some features which can be synergisticallycombined with the inventions claimed below, may be found in thefollowing references, all of which are incorporated herein by referencein their entireties: U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,334, “Method And Apparatus ToAllow Remotely Located Computer Programs And/Or Data To Be Accessed On ALocal Computer In A Secure, Time-Limited Manner, With PersistentCaching”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,451,196, “Method And System For Executing ASoftware Application In A Virtual Environment”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,062,567,“Intelligent Network Streaming And Execution System For ConventionallyCoded Applications”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,918,113, “Client Installation AndExecution System For Streamed Applications”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,959,320,“Client-Side Performance Optimization System For Streamed Applications”;U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,524, “Network Caching System For StreamedApplications”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,253, “Method And Apparatus ForStreaming Software”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,577,751, “Software Streaming SystemAnd Method”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,952, “Method and apparatus for trackingclient interaction with a network resource and creating client profilesand resource database”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,149,761, “Systems And Method ForManaging The Synchronization Of Replicated Version-Managed Databases”;U.S. Pat. No. 7,240,162, “System and Method for Predictive Streaming”;U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,098, “System and method for selectively distributingcommercial messages over a communications network”; U.S. Pat. No.6,216,129, “Advertisement Selection System Supporting DiscretionaryTarget Market Characteristics”; U.S. Pat. No. 7,337,127, “TargetedMarketing System and Method”; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/005,729,“Optimized Server For Streamed Applications”; U.S. application Ser. No.11/273,862, “Streaming From A Media Device”; U.S. application Ser. No.11/388,381, “System And Method For Tracking Changes To Files InStreaming Applications”; U.S. application Ser. No. 11/453,301,“Intelligent Network Streaming And Execution System For ConventionallyCoded Applications”; U.S. application Ser. No. 11/977,187, “Rule-BasedApplication Access Management”; U.S. application Ser. No. 12/062,766,“Deriving Component Statistics For A Stream Enabled Application”; U.S.application Ser. No. 12/062,789, “Opportunistic Block Transmission WithTime Constraints”; U.S. application Ser. No. 12/509,210, “SoftwareStreaming System And Method”; U.S. Prov. App. No. 61/480,333, “AdaptiveApplication Streaming In Cloud Gaming”; U.S. Prov. App. No. 61/505,826,“Application Distribution Network”; U.S. Prov. App. No. 61/600,390,“Application Scan and Redelivery”; U.S. Prov. App. No. 61/602,069,“Application Scan and Redelivery”; and U.S. Prov. App. No. 61/609,941,“Application Distribution Network”.

The following additional literature is also incorporated herein byreference: Application Jukebox User Guide v 8.3 by EndeavorsTechnologies Inc.; Application Jukebox Server Administration Guide v 8.2by Endeavors Technologies Inc.; Software2 Reporting Interface forApplication Jukebox; Magento User Guide, Community Edition v 1.6,Magento Inc.; and all public information disclosed, as of Apr. 26, 2012,on the websites of Onlive, Inc., Gaikai Inc., and Otoy, Inc.

The claims as filed are intended to be as comprehensive as possible, andNO subject matter is intentionally relinquished, dedicated, orabandoned.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing a remote gaming service,comprising the actions of: a) downloading over a network to a gamestation, without explicit user designation, at least an initiallyimmediately playable portion of at least one game, said game beingchosen at least partially in dependence on at least some of: usageinformation of said game station, usage heuristics of said game station,current and prior amounts of storage used of said game station, andavailable bandwidth; when a user selects a particular game from saiddownloaded games, b) beginning execution of said game virtualized atsaid game station using the initially immediately playable portion ofsaid game; using a file system hook to augment a client file system ofsaid game station with a file system overlay used to control access ofan operating system of said game station to the client file systemthrough the file system hook; intercepting a file system call for atleast one of additional components used in continued execution of saidgame virtualized at said game station from said operating system usingsaid file system hook; determining if the at least one of saidadditional components resides in local storage at said game station; ifit is determined the at least one of said additional components isabsent from said local storage, c) streaming over a network to said gamestation the at least one of said additional components, said streamingbeginning contemporaneously with and continuing at least partiallyconcurrently with said executing, and providing the at least one of saidadditional components to said operating system through said file systemoverlay by said file system hook for use in continued execution of saidgame virtualized at said game station.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinwhether said additional components are resident in or streaming to saidgame station is hidden from users of said game station.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein at least one choice made during play of said particulargame causes streaming of at least one additional component of saidparticular game or of optional additional content of said particulargame.
 4. The method claim 1, wherein once a portion of a game has beenpushed or streamed to said game station, said game station can act as anapplication source with respect to said portion.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein said initially immediately playable portion of saidparticular game is a pre-virtualized packaged version of said particulargame.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said initially immediatelyplayable portion comprises of at least the whole executable of a game.7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions that, when executed, direct a computing apparatus toperform the steps of: a) downloading over a network to a game station,without explicit user designation, at least an initially immediatelyplayable portion of at least one game, said game being chosen at leastpartially in dependence on at least some of: usage information of saidgame station, usage heuristics of said game station, current and prioramounts of storage used of said game station, and available bandwidth;when a user selects a particular game from said downloaded games, b)beginning execution of said game virtualized at said game station usingthe initially immediately playable portion of said game; using a filesystem hook to augment a client file system of said game station with afile system overlay used to control access of an operating system ofsaid game station to the client file system through the file systemhook; intercepting a file system call for at least one of additionalcomponents used in continued execution of said game virtualized at saidgame station from said operating system using said file system hook;determining if the at least one of said additional components resides inlocal storage at said game station; if it is determined the at least oneof said additional components is absent from said local storage, c)streaming over a network to said game station the at least one of saidadditional components, said streaming beginning contemporaneously withand continuing at least partially concurrently with said executing, andproviding the at least one of said additional components to saidoperating system through said file system overlay by said file systemhook for use in continued execution of said game virtualized at saidgame station.
 8. A method for providing a remote gaming service,comprising the actions of: a) collecting user preference data using atleast one first game station and at least one game pusher, said userpreference data comprising at least some of: usage information of saidfirst game station and/or at least one other game station, usageheuristics of said first game station and/or at least one other gamestation, current storage used of said first game station and/or at leastone other game station, and available bandwidth; b) downloading by saidfirst game station from said game pusher or pushing by said game pusherto said first game station, without explicit user designation, at leastan initially immediately playable portion of at least one game, saidgame being chosen at least partially in dependence on said userpreference data; when a user selects said game from said downloaded orpushed games, c) beginning execution of said game virtualized at saidfirst game station using the initially immediately playable portion ofsaid game; using a file system hook to augment a client file system ofsaid first game station with a file system overlay used to controlaccess of an operating system of said first game station to the clientfile system through the file system hook; intercepting a file systemcall for at least one of additional components used in continuedexecution of said game virtualized at said first game station from saidoperating system using said file system hook; determining if the atleast one of said additional components resides in local storage at saidfirst game station; if it is determined the at least one of saidadditional components is absent from said local storage, d) streamingover a network to said first game station the at least one of saidadditional components, said streaming beginning contemporaneously withand continuing at least partially concurrently with said executing, andproviding the at least one of said additional components to saidoperating system through said file system overlay by said file systemhook for use in continued execution of said game virtualized at saidfirst game station.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein whether saidadditional components are resident in or streaming to said first gamestation is hidden from users of said first game station.
 10. The methodof claim 8, wherein at least one choice made during play of saidparticular game causes streaming of at least one additional component ofsaid particular game or of optional additional content of saidparticular game.
 11. The method claim 8, wherein once a portion of agame has been pushed or streamed to said first game station, said firstgame station can act as an application source with respect to saidportion.
 12. The method of claim 8, further comprising controlling,without explicit user designation, deletion of portions, components andcomplete games from said first game station.
 13. The method of claim 8,wherein said initially immediately playable portion of said particulargame is a pre-virtualized packaged version of said particular game. 14.The method of claim 13, further comprising controlling, without explicituser designation, virtualization and de-virtualization of portions,components and/or complete games on said first game station.
 15. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions that, when executed, direct a computing apparatus toperform the steps of: a) collecting user preference data using at leastone first game station and at least one game pusher, said userpreference data comprising at least some of: usage information of saidfirst game station and/or at least one other game station, usageheuristics of said first game station and/or at least one other gamestation, current storage used of said first game station and/or at leastone other game station, and available bandwidth; b) downloading by saidfirst game station from said game pusher or pushing by said game pusherto said first game station, without explicit user designation, at leastan initially immediately playable portion of at least one game, saidgame being chosen at least partially in dependence on said userpreference data; when a user selects said particular game from saiddownloaded or pushed games, c) beginning execution of said gamevirtualized at said first game station using the initially immediatelyplayable portion of said game; using a file system hook to augment aclient file system of said first game station with a file system overlayused to control access of an operating system of said first game stationto the client file system through the file system hook; intercepting afile system call for at least one of additional components used incontinued execution of said game virtualized at said first game stationfrom said operating system using said file system hook; determining ifthe at least one of said additional components resides in local storageat said first game station; if it is determined the at least one of saidadditional components is absent from said local storage, d) streamingover a network to said first game station the at least one of saidadditional components, said streaming beginning contemporaneously withand continuing at least partially concurrently with said executing, andproviding the at least one of said additional components to saidoperating system through said file system overlay by said file systemhook for use in continued execution of said game virtualized at saidfirst game station.
 16. A game playing system, comprising: a) at leastone game input unit and at least one display; b) software comprising atleast immediately initially playable portions of at least one gamedownloaded over a network, without explicit user designation and/orinvisibly to users of a game station, from a game supplier, said gamebeing chosen at least partially in dependence on at least some of: usageinformation of said game station, usage heuristics of said game station,current and prior amounts of storage used of said game, and availablebandwidth; c) said game station, connected to execute said software,which causes said game station to: begin execution of said gamevirtualized at said game station using the initially immediatelyplayable portion of said game; use a file system hook to augment aclient file system of said game station with a file system overlay usedto control access of an operating system of said game station to theclient file system through the file system hook; intercept a file systemcall for at least one of additional components used in continuedexecution of said game virtualized at said game station from saidoperating system using said file system hook; determine if the at leastone of said additional components resides in local storage at said gamestation; receive the at least one of said additional components streamedthrough a network if it is determined the at least one of saidadditional components is absent from said local storage, said streamingbeginning contemporaneously with and continuing at least partiallyconcurrently with said executing, and provide the at least one of saidadditional components to said operating system through said file systemoverlay by said file system hook for use in continued execution of saidgame virtualized at said game station; send output from said gamestation to said display based on the continued execution of said gamevirtualized at said game station.
 17. The system of claim 16, whereinsaid software is a pre-virtualized packaged version of said particulargame.
 18. The system of claim 16, wherein additional components may beselected by a user to be streamed to said game station.
 19. The systemof claim 16, wherein a user can select at least one game to be includedin said available games on said game station.
 20. The system of claim16, wherein playability of said game or said additional componentsdepends at least partially on availability and details of applicablepermissions.